Netscape is dead...

Well, it's a sad day for all of us geeks. According to TechCrunch, AOL has officially decided to pull the life support plug on Netscape. My first exposure to the internet was in the summer of 1995 with AOL. After getting an $80+ bill (in those days, AOL didn't have unlimited usage) I had to find other means of accessing the web. I found a local ISP with unlimited service and then went to town. But wait! I needed something to explore the internet. What? A browser? What is that?

I had no idea what a browser was at that time. So I downloaded Netscape and away I went. At the time, the internet for me was this whole other world that the vast majority of the public still didn't know about. Of course, for several years after I got on the internet people were still thinking that AOL WAS the internet!

Of course, AOL ended up buying Netscape and not really doing a whole lot with it. I tried to keep using Netscape while Internet Explorer was beginning its dominance, but finally had to give it up in 1999 due to the fact that an increasing number of web sites were not functioning properly on Netscape.

I used IE for a few years until Firefox came out, and I haven't looked back since. Here's to you Netscape! It was nice knowing you for when I needed to know you!

Prospective New Job Updates

I was doing some searching through my emails last week or so and I came across the automated email response for the dispatcher job that I'm currently in the process of going through. It was dated August 29th! I didn't realize it had been that long. It'll be four months since I began the process for this hopefully new job.

Anyway, I have passed all of the tests. The "orals" was actually an oral exam. Get your minds out of the gutter! I realize I live in the Bay Area, but let's keep it PG-13ish....ahh fuck it! The first part of that exam was a written part where I was given some scenarios and situations with available officers. I had to write how and why I would use the available officers and when I would use them.

The oral exam that was in front of a three person panel was that I was given six different call scenarios. For each of these scenarios I had to answer three questions: What would I say to the caller? What would I tell the caller? and What would I do?

A couple of times I changed my decisions on what exactly I would do. I guess it didn't count against me too much since I placed sixth amongst all the other applicants that made it this far. For one of the scenarios it dealt with a woman that was just raped and it got in to some detail. At first I started to get incensed at the situation, but then I thought, "Hmmm...I bet this is what they're looking at. If I can't stay calm in this type of situation there's no way in hell I'd be able to handle the real thing." I guess it all worked out.

So after I received the positive results for that, they sent me the background packet. They wanted to know virtually every single sordid thing I've ever done. They wanted to know if I've ever molested a child, had or shared child pornography, all of the illegal and legal drugs I've done recreationally (thank God that's an extremely short list), if I've ever been drunk in public to the point I couldn't take care of myself, if I've ever hunted or fished without a license, if I've ever been fired, if I've ever hit and run with or without injuries, and if I said yes to any of those questions they wanted to know the details. On top of all that, they wanted to know where I've lived for the last ten years and ALL of the jobs I've had. Plus they wanted copies of my driver's license, social security card, official copies of my high school and college transcripts as well as an official copy of my birth certificate.

I sent that packet out two weeks ago. I had a little scare with the packet and its arrival there. I sent the packet via certified mail. The following day I sent out my high school transcripts via certified mail as well. I waited the entire weekend for confirmation that they received it. Finally, I got confirmation that they received my high school transcripts, but not the all important dossier with my sordid life story. So I crapped myself. The last thing I wanted was to be disqualified because I didn't get the paperwork in on time due to the post office. So I called them up and fortunately they called me back the next day informing me that they received the packet the very next day. Woo!

The moral of that story is never send important documents by certified mail. The tracking system isn't very good. The next time I'll send it FedEx or UPS. They have much better tracking systems.

That's it for now. They said it would be several weeks before they notify me about an interview for the background investigation. With that, I'm imagining is going to be the polygraph. I'm very apprehensive about that. We'll see.

Oh, and a bit of good news for me: Trish and I are getting married on January 14th. We're planning on doing it at city hall in San Francisco. It's going to be a small intimate wedding ceremony. Nothing fancy. We're planning on having the big wedding in the Philippines in July.

Sweeney Todd

Trish and I went and saw Sweeney Todd last night. I have to be honest and say that I've never been a very big Stephen Sondheim fan. I've also never had the chance to see a staged version of the musical. However, I must say that the movie version is absolutely delightfully wicked! I loved it! In fact, I think I may go see it again.

Tim Burton has really nailed the visual look. It is so colorful and deep in its absence of bright, cheery colors. From the way the camera moves, to the hair, makeup, costumes, and production design, it is absolutely brilliant and totally apropos for the mood and atmosphere.

The singing has been much discussed on the web and it is true that Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are no great singers. But what they lack in vocal acrobatics they supplant with wonderful characterizations.

Depp's Todd is dead on with a man unduly wronged and set out for vengeance. Carter is a wonderful Mrs. Lovett who is also sympathetic and amazingly wicked.

It seems odd that Burton would tackle a musical and one of the most celebrated American musicals at that, but he does a wonderful job with the direction in this work. He has set the right mood for this Victorian London in which we see Sweeney Todd planning his revenge and the steps he takes to achieve it. Burton is able to keep a terrifying musical terrifying which is no easy feat when one thinks about it. How does one keep a modern audience terrified when you have a bunch of people singing almost non stop through out the piece? Well, he does.

If you're in to good story telling or wonderful mood pieces, you should definitely check it out. And of course, if you're in to musical theater or Sondheim, you'd be a fool not to check it out.

ADDENDUM:

I was thinking about this after I posted this and there were two things that I wanted to add. The first is that this movie has a LOT of blood and it has several rather gruesome scenes. Those that know me, know the gorier the better as far as I'm concerned. And the gore was added with great dramatic effect.

The second thing I wanted to add was this: the more I thought about it, the more I felt that I wasn't watching a musical. That is not meant as an insult. In fact, it should be taken as a compliment both to Stephen Sondheim and Tim Burton. Sondheim really blends the spoken word with the musical numbers quite naturally and effortlessly. It doesn't feel like the typical musical in which you know that at a given moment it's going to be time for the actors to break in to song.

As I said before, this is my first exposure to this work and it's one that I'm going to have to investigate further. With a quick Google search, I discovered that there are a couple telefilms that were made from the original story "The String of Pearls: A Romance" by Thomas Prest in 1846. Christopher Bond's play, simply titled Sweeney Todd was the version that was eventually adapted for the musical version.

Wikipedia has an interesting entry about this story. I think I'm going to have to investigate it more. It seems that this story could be partially true with some nice urban legends thrown in to the mix.