Gruntling the Disgruntled: November 2008

Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Mist

Watched The Mist last night. This is movie adaptation of one of Steven King's novellas. It's found in the Skeleton Crew compilation of short stories.

The Mist is one of my favorite Steven King stories, so I was excited that there was going to be a movie. When the movie finally came out, I heard a lot of bad things about it. So, I skipped it. After it's release on DVD, I started reading some good reviews. Most of these, however, said to check out the black and white version of the movie that comes on the bonus disc. Which is what I did.

First, it's not the greatest movie ever. But, it's definitely not a 'bad' movie. It's a monster movie. That's it. Maybe that's why it works better in black and white, because it is like an old monster movie. I didn't watch any of the color version, so I don't know for sure, but I would guess that the preference for black and white also has something to do with monster special effects. Going by other films, CGI monsters just aren't scary. In black and white, I have to say the monster effects looked pretty good and they don't have that CGI 'look' that we can all spot a mile away.

So, if you like a good monster film, with some pretty suspenseful sequences, then go ahead and watch it. It does have a very bleak ending, much worse than what is in the original novella. But, it works. Any kind of happy ending would have just been unsatisfying.

Don Herche 1954-2008

This past Monday, Don Herche passed away. Don was the owner of Public Opinion Research and my boss for 10 years. Don was the uncle of a good high school friend, Eric Crews, and it was through Eric that I first met Don and eventually came to work for him.

I know that I learned a lot from Don. Yes, I learned specific things about survey research or computer programming, but also much bigger lessons. I recently realized that it was because of Don that I learned how to teach myself how to learn new software. It was also because of Don that I learned how to work independently and how to solve problems on my own. These weren't easy lessons to learn and I know that, at the time, I was not happy in the situations where I needed to learn them to succeed. But, they have definitely paid off over time.

Don was a unique person. This was very much evident at the memorial service in his honor that we attended today. He affected many people in his life, all for the best.

I didn't have any contact with Don after I left POR. I regret that I didn't contact him occasionally and catch up. I had finally gotten to the point where I recognized that I should contact him, when I learned that he had been stricken with cancer again and was dying.

So, Don, I didn't get a chance to tell you this in person, but, thanks. I learned a lot from you. I have a lot of good memories from my days as your employee and I know now that not many people would say that about their former boss. I realized that all those times that were so frustrating to me were usually because I needed to learn something new or learn how to get along with someone who had a different way of doing things than I did.