As if Lewis Carroll’s tale of Alice in Wonderland were not colourful enough, Tim Burton comes along and recreates the story with his usual fabulous flair.

In this version of the story that has been told by so many, you’ll enjoy a mix of colourful costuming, reinvented characters and great animation. Top it all off with the ever-popular 3D phenomenon that is hitting cinemas these days and you won’t want to take your eyes from the screen.

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp make a stella combination in modern film-making, and add into the mix Helena Bonham-Carter’s quirky character and you’re bound to have a story well-told. Mia Wasikowska makes for a very enchanting Alice, bringing to the screen a sense of innocence and naivety. Her beautiful gowns throughout the film are bound to make every little girl green with envy.

Alice in Wonderland contains the perfect mix of drama, humour, suspense and adventure – not to mention the dark spin on the story as is Burton’s usual style – with a grand battle to complete the adventure, where Alice could be likened to Joan of Arc in her shining armour and angelic features.

My only complaint after seeing this film was with Anne Hathaway being cast as the White Queen. Don’t get me wrong, in my opinion, Hathaway is gorgeous and holds her own in the acting world, but I think her dark features (only exaggerated by make-up) contrast a little too much with the ashen complexion and aura of this character. I’m sure this was the intention of the film-makers but something about the aesthetics just didn’t quite work.

All in all, this was a magical tale that I would definately pay to see again, and again…..and probably again.

Checkout Alice in Wonderland on IMDB.

If anyone else is game to try their skill against my car, I dare double dare PHYSICAL CHALLENGE you!!!

1. As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday, and employees will receive their cards in two weeks.  (This was the winning entry, from Fred Dales at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA)

2. What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter.  (Lykes Lines Shipping)

3. How long is this Beta guy going to keep testing our stuff?  (Programming intern, Microsoft IIS development team)

4. E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business.  (Accounting Mgr., Electric Boat Company)

5. This project is so important, we can’t let things that are more important interfere with it.  (Advertising/Mktg. Mgr., UPS)

6. Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule.  (R&D Supervisor, Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing/3M Corp.)

7. My boss spent the entire weekend retyping a 25-page proposal that only needed corrections. She claims the disk I gave her was damaged and she couldn’t edit it. The disk I gave her was write-protected.  (CIO of Dell Computers)

8. Quote from the boss: “Teamwork is a lot of people doing what ‘I’ say.”  (Mktg. executive, Citrix Corporation)

9. My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my boss, he said she died so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, “That would be better for me.”  (Shipping Executive, FTD Florists)

10. We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees.  (AT&T Long Lines Division)

11. We recently received a memo from senior management saying, “This is to inform you that a memo will be issued today regarding the subject mentioned above.”  (Microsoft, Legal Affairs Division)

12. One day my boss asked me to submit a status report to him concerning a project I was working on. I asked him if tomorrow would be soon enough. He said, “If I wanted it tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow to ask for it!” (New Business Mgr., Hallmark Cards)

13. As director of communications, I was asked to prepare a memo reviewing our company’s training programs and materials. In the body of the memo one of the sentences mentioned the “pedagogical approach” used by one of the training manuals. The day after I routed the memo to the executive committee, I was called into the HR Director’s office, and was told that the executive VP wanted me out of the building by lunch. When I asked why, I was told that she wouldn’t stand for “perverts” (pedophiles?) working in her company. Finally he showed me her copy of the memo, with her demand that I be fired, with the word “pedagogical” circled in red. The HR Manager was fairly reasonable, and once he looked the word up in his dictionary and made a copy of the definition to send to my boss, he told me not to worry. He would take care of it. Two days later a memo to the entire staff came out, directing us that no words which could not be found in the local Sunday newspaper could be used in company memos. A month later, I resigned. In accordance with company policy, I created my resignation letter by pasting words together from the Sunday paper. (Taco Bell Corporation)

14. This gem is the closing paragraph of a nationally-circulated memo from a large communications company: “Lucent Technologies is determined to promote constant attention on current procedures of transacting business focusing emphasis on innovative ways to better, if not supercede, the expectations of quality!”

15. No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We’ve been working on it for months. Now, go act busy for a few weeks and I’ll let you know when it’s time to tell them.  (R&D Supervisor, Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing /3M Corp.)

And if you have a manager or boss that could compete with some of these….ummm, less than impressive leaders, then checkout www.epicbossfail.com

He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week.”

The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.

The frog then cried out, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I’ll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want.”

Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, “What is the matter? I’ve told you I’m a beautiful princess, that I’ll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won’t you kiss me?”

The engineer said, “Look, I’m an engineer. I don’t have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that’s cool.”

The architect said he enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring relationship.

The artist said he enjoyed time with his mistress, because of the passion and mystery he found there.

The engineer said, “I like both.”

The others:  ”Both?”

Engineer:  “Yeah. If you have a wife and a mistress, they will each assume you are spending time with the other woman, and you can go to the lab and get some work done.”

Engineers believe that: “…if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.”

- Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle

As it turns out, I’m racing out to buy this album as soonas I can hit the pavement and find a record store that stocks it.  Actually, on second thoughts, I’ll probably just buy it online now

Check out Amazon and have a listen to the funky soul sounds of Tower of Power – In The Slot.

One said, “It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints.”

Another said, “No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections.”

The last one said, “Actually, it was a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?”

A.  Mechanical Engineers build weapons and Civil Engineers build targets.

A few years later, the company contacted him regarding a seemingly unsolvable problem they were experiencing with one of their multi-million dollar machines.  They had tried everything and everyone to no avail.

In desperation, they called the retired engineer, who had solved so many of their problems in the past, begging him to help them out with this difficult situation.

The engineer reluctantly took the challenge.  He spent 1 day studying the huge machine.  At the end of the day, he marked a small “x” in chalk on a particular component of the machine and stated, “This is where your problem is.”

The defective part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly to everyone’s relief.  The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service.  They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.

The engineer responded briefly:  “One chalk mark – $1.00.  Knowing where to put it – $49,999.00.”

It was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace.