I can't believe I haven't blogged since last Friday. Time does fly except I'm not having that much fun so I guess time flies regardless of what time you're having.

I saw The Ladykillers this weekend. The Coen brothers make some interesting movies. I don't like all of them, but you definitely see something you don't see anywhere else. All their films usually involve a very dynamic set of characters and then they get put in weird situations. My favorite Coen brothers movie is still O Brother, Where Art Thou? The other ones I've seen are Fargo, The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy, and Raising Arizona. I really liked the The Hudsucker Proxy (because I work for a big beaurocratic corporation) and Raising Arizona (because comedy Nick Cage is so rare now and cuz it's really funny). All of the Coen brothers movies have interesting soundtracks. The music is usually quite entertaining. Anyways, in The Ladykillers, Tom Hanks plays a role I have never seen him in and he is great and really funny. Tom Hanks does so many serious roles now, it's hard to remember him as a funny guy from the 80's, but he was so good in that genre too. My only complaint about this movie was there was a whole lot of profanity. ScreenIt reports that the F word was used 78 times. I could have sworn it was twice that, but I guess they know since they actually counted. Anyways, if you're a Coen fan, you'll probably like it. If you want to be a Coen fan, start with O Brother, Hudsucker, and Raising Arizona. If I really were to recommend a movie with lots of profanity in it, I would have to go with Welcome to Collinwood. That movie is way funny!

Today marks my 6 year anniversary with Northrop Grumman/TRW. Six years ago today, I started here with great hopes of starting a career. Six years later, I wonder what I'm still doing here and if this is the right career for me, ha ha. Usually people have their midlife crisis in their midlife. I think I'm having mine early. I'm taking it all in stride though. The good part about being young is it is easier to break free. The bad part is it's too early to retire. Work is a little frustrating right now and I'm not enjoying it a whole lot. There is work to do, but it seems like I'm going in circles. It's hard to design a solution when the requirements aren't clear AND impossible. I had an interview with an agent concerning my security clearance yesterday. I'm still in this long process of getting cleared. Having family that lives in a foreign country sure doesn't help so most of the questions were about that. When I got back, my boss asked me what the interview was about...here's that conversation:

Boss: Who did they want to know about?
Me: Well, mainly me in general...all that time I did in prison.
Boss: (silence...awkward silence...and then more silence)
Me: I'm just kidding!
Boss: Oh...(followed by nervous laughter)
Me: heh heh

I told him the real reason and all was good. I can't believe he thought I was serious. I don't think I said it that convincingly. I'll have to be careful what I say. Anyways, happy 6 years to me! Last year at my 5 year, I was given a choice for a gift among some items. They had a clock, money clip, globe, picture frame, jewelry, etc. I went with the globe. Nothing says you're really smart more than having a globe in your office. It's not a very big one though. It's maybe only 10 inches in diameter, but I like it. At the same time, my coworker got to choose a gift for his 25th anniversary. He had the same choices as me only they were clearly higher quality...better clock, better globe, better picture frame, etc. He got the clock. I would have got the globe there too. It was bigger and came with a 3 foot stand...fancy. Anyways, no gifts for 6 years. I'll have to wait until my 10 year. We'll see about that.

I did my taxes last night. This was the longest I have procrastinated to do my taxes and yet the quickest to get them done. I've been using Turbo Tax for the past few years now. Last night I bought it and it only took 2 hours from installation to completion. Pretty cool. I'm getting a refund. Refunds aren't really as good as they sound. It basically means you gave the government an interest free loan for the entire year. I am so generous, ha ha. I increased my withholding (witholding?) in the middle of last year, so I guess if I do it a whole year maybe next time I'll be paying them. Then who gets the interest free loan, eh government?