'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' movie reminds me of my Dad...

I forgot to publish this story from months ago...

Last week, Laura, Julia and I went to see 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' an animated movie loosely based on the children's book of the same title. The movie was also shown in 3D, which we went to and I loved.

The movie centers around a young inventor named Flint Lockwood. He's stuck in the middle of a small town off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean whose only export is sardines, which is a problem because, as Flint puts it, "Sardines are gross."

Bored with the mundane food choices in town and wanting to invent something that actually works the way it was intended, Flint invents a machine that transforms water into food. A freak accident sends it up in the clouds, which causes it to rain hamburgers and various other food items. Eventually, the town starts to use it's raining food occurrences to better their tourism. The greedy mayor, played by Bruce Campbell, keeps asking Flint to up the ante on the types of food. Before long, things get out of hand and the food machine looks like it may end the world with a flood of food unless Flint can stop it.

It's here where I'm reminded of my Dad. Throughout the movie, Flint is trying to earn his Dad's respect. His Dad, Tim, played by James Caan, runs a bait shop and wants to have no part with Flint's crazy inventions.

In a small spoiler alert, Flint is trying to take out the food machine, but the computer program he's trying to use to destroy it gets wiped out, so he calls up his Dad to get a back up of the program and email it. This is simple enough for a novice, but Tim has never used a computer before.

Flint tells him to move the mouse to the top of the screen and click on a certain button. Tim moves the mouse, not on the desktop, but up on the screen itself. It's a very funny scene.

Where is reminds me of my Dad is that my Dad had never used a computer before until he was 61 or 62. His employer had been bought out and were trying to upgrade everyone's workspace and ways of doing things. This involved getting everyone trained on how to use the new computer software. Learning how to use a new software program is not exactly easy for a novice, but for a total beginner, it's probably damn near impossible.

Up until that point, my Dad, who bid on construction projects as part of his job, used good old fashion desktop calculators to get his figures that he needed. Apparently, that wasn't good enough for the new employers who wanted computer records of some sort. I guess my Dad's notes and calculator receipts weren't good enough for some reason.

Of course, I'm kidding. It's not unreasonable to have an employer expect that of their employees, but I think it was a bit much to ask my Dad.

I would have given anything to be in that classroom while my Dad was taking computer training.

Think about it. He had never had to turn one on. He had never touched a mouse before. He probably didn't know which button was the primary one. He probably didn't know how to open programs, find files, print documents, save files, delete files and various other computer activities that we all take for granted.

I remember asking him how it was going.

He had grumbled that it was useless, but that he was giving it a shot. He, of course, was confused and lost. He told me that one young guy next to him showed him a couple of shortcuts that the teacher hadn't shown him.

My Dad asked, "Why doesn't he teach it if it saves time?"

I'm not sure if my Dad understood that there are move than one ways to do things on a computer.

So to end this story, my Dad ended up retiring a few years later. I think I recall that he never did use the computer. He continued to use his calculator.

"What are they going to do? Fire me?" he asked me.

Smart Phone with a projector on it

Laura and I saw a commercial tonight for a new LG phone. A guy walks into the break room and casually asks, "Hey, have you guys seen the new Avatar trailer?" Then he proceeds to whip out his phone and projects it on the wall with his phone that has a projector on it.

Laura asked, "Who in the hell would need a projector on their smart phone?"

I replied, "Someone that's trying to show off."

Reading Harry Potter books to Julia...

I've been reading the Harry Potter books to Julia. She seems to really enjoy them. It took us over 6 months to get through the first one, mainly because I put it down and forgot to read it to her for months. We finally got around to finishing it a week or so ago. We then rented the movie, which she loved.

So I'm in the middle of the second book, The Chamber of Secrets and she keeps asking this every time I read and the character, Wood, says something.

Julia: "Who's Wood?"

Me: "He's the captain of the Griffindor Quidditch team. You ask me that every time he's mentioned."

To be fair, by the end of the series, there are over 100 characters to follow. I try to liven it up by using voices for different characters when I can. Julia says that she really likes that.