Hell Girl

The resources of one known as "Recon" provided me with a recording of part of IFC's run of Hell Girl.

I just finished watching it.

It's a beautifully-animated show and deeply, deeply f***ed up.

In a nutshell, this girl named Ai can be summoned by the "Hell Correspondence" website that appears after midnight. Enter your grievance and it summons Ai, the Hell Girl. Ai gives the summoner a straw doll with a red cord tied around it. She then explains that the summoner has only to remove the string and the summoner's target will be sent straight to hell.

No passing Go. No collecting $200.

The catch: the summoner bears a mark indicating that (s)he will also go to hell, when the summoner's life ends.

The interesting bit about the story - to me - is that the target for the summoner doesn't have to be a guilty person.

Kind of messed up.

There's apparently three seasons of this messed-up show. I'll have to track the rest down now.

Burning off Karma

I spent the productive parts of today being a shuttle driver for a martial arts tournament that has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm learning beyond having a few common teachers and a common umbrella organization.

Let me tell you, driving to and from SFO on a Saturday sucks arse.

Parking in Berkeley sucks even more arse.

I'm goddamn tired.

I BARTed into Berkeley to do my shuttle bit. After I handed off the keys I stopped at Jupiter for a couple of pints and something to eat.

I'm nursing a lovely buzz right now supplemented by a Newcastle from my 'fridge.

I'd planned to cook up some pasta sauce, but I don't trust my ability to handle complex machinery or anything that may invoke fire.

I'm - right now - processing a lot of raw data a variety of people have thrown at me.

I've found out that one of my best friends is going to become a father in 2010. I'm damn happy for Recon (you won't get it, so don't bother trying) and his lovely wife.

I'm kind of numb from the booze. Maybe skipping lunch was a bad idea?

Best way to tell time

Is this way.

Okay, maybe it's just my opinion. Heh-heh-heh.

Who Knows

So... new "Dr. Who" companion.

I should watch "the Fires of Pompeii" again.

Backsliding and Glimmers

So apparently the Taliban's influence in Afghanistan remains. In Salon they have an article about these Taliban assholes threatening to kill schoolgirls for (horrors!) the act of going to school for a basic education.

While the idea that the Taliban is doing this is quite repulsive, I do like the end of the article:

Still, the news isn't all bad. At the girls' school in Qosh Tappeh, likewise near Kunduz, the school director, a veteran of the mujahedeen, took things into his own hands. When the Taliban showed up to his school for the second time to present their threats, he found a uniquely Afghan solution to the problem. He told his visitors that, when it comes to fighting to the death, he is much more experienced than they. Should they like to find out for sure, he offered, he would be happy to accommodate them.

His threat seemed to have worked. The girls in Qosh Tappeh continue to attend school.

I guess what they say about confronting bullies still holds true. Especially if the bullies are facing out with a badass who has already fought his share of battles.

WANT!

I am unimpressed with the rate-of-fire, but... me WANT!.

The Wisdom of Sohmer

Ryan Sohmer says it best in his blog post today (quoted without permission... I hope he forgives...):

With all the interesting things in the news of late, I've been having a hard time picking what to talk about today.

Initially, I had intended to write about the utter uselessness that is the United Nations, in response to their (in)actions to the North Korean situation. The league of nations failed to prevent world war II, so I suppose it seemed a good idea at the time to rename it The United Nations and hope for the best.

The next topic I was considering was Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme court. I don't know enough about her to make a call either way, but what is bothering me here is that every politician, every news anchor, every analyst and commentator is focusing on her ethnicity, rather than her qualifications.

This doesn't help ease racial issues and tensions, it only highlights them.

Over at CNN, Ruben Navarrette talks about what a step forward this is. For me, a step forward would have been had Sotomayor been nominated, and no one even remarked on the fact that she was Hispanic. That she got nominated because the President thought she was the best candidate for the job.

In the end, though, the thing that's predominantly on my mind is yesterday's decision in California to uphold proposition 8, which bans gay marriage in the state. This measure, passed by a close vote during the November elections, overturned a May 2008 ruling by the California Supreme court that had made it constitutional for same-sex couples to get hitched in the state.

I am a proponent for gay rights, but more importantly, I make no distinction between gay and civil rights.

A gay individual in California pays their state and federal taxes like anyone else, so why are they denied certain rights? The bible may define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but isn't the bible based on a system of religious beliefs? Isn't there supposed to be a clean line that separates church and state?

What gives someone the right to impose their beliefs on someone else?

I may not agree with your beliefs, whether you're Christian, Muslim or Jewish, but I won't spend millions of dollars and countless hours to deny you a civil right that I enjoy.

That environment, California, is not where I would choose to live, or raise children, gay or not.

The year is 2009, and the fact that we're even having this conversation is absurd to me.

Right there, Sohmer manages to perfectly state exactly what is profoundly WRONG with the latest things that have managed to hit headlines in the news.

Seriously.

Why are people making any kind of deal about Sonia Sotomayor being Hispanic? What the hell is this, the 19th century? The President believes her qualified. End of story.

And Prop 8... sweet bejebus.

I wish Sohmer had written the counter-arguments for Prop 8 back when it was a ballot issue. Maybe it would have convinced a few more California voters to get their heads on straight.

My home state still irritates me right now.

Hello Friday!

Welcome back! I missed you!

Oh, and you brought a payday along for good measure! YAY YOU!

I think I may be in love.

This weekend? Oh, not much. I volunteered to be an "on call" driver for a club I'm part of. Yeah. Volunteering... not very smart. Oh well.

Otherwise, I think I'll finish watching The Sky Crawlers. Beautiful film so far but deeply weird.

I'm having trouble parsing out how fast May ended.

The heat death of the universe is clearly upon us.

Worth my Salt

So apparently, if you ingest a lot of salt, your body swells a bit.

This is what I've been told.

I considered it something of an urban legend or myth.

Today I'm wearing a ring on one finger. I just had Chinese food for lunch that I know is pretty salty.

Could barely take the ring off my finger. I needed soap and water.

Hmm.

Not free, but has style

I got a Leatherman 831078 Freestyle yesterday.

Why?

I wanted one and I got a deal on it.

I already own a Skeletool and LOVE it. I wanted to check out the Freestyle and compare.

So the Freestyle is just a slimmed-down Skeletool, for the most part. It lacks the screwdriver capability as well as the carbiner/bottle opener. On the plus side, it makes the Freestyle smaller, but I do love my Skeletool's screwdriver and carbiner/bottle opener functions.

The 831078 Freestyle has a combo blade with the slight serrated edge rather than the straight edge my particular Skeletool has. My particular Freestyle's pliers are a bit "stickier" than my Skeletool's pliers. Some WD-40 will probably help with that.

And the Freestyle's blade is DAMN sharp. While playing with it (like a true idiot does), I managed to slice open my thumb.

Me smart.

I do like it. I can't say I'll be swapping out my Skeletool anytime soon, but I don't regret the purchase.

Abhoren-a-riffic

I found out yesterday that Garth Nix is writing two more books in his "Old Kingdom" series. One is a "prequel" called "Clariel: the Lost Abhorsen" or something like that. It tells the tale of Chlorr of the Mask. The last (yet-unnamed) book is a sequel to "Abhorsen".

I'm kind of jazzed.

These may be "young adult" books, but I find them better-written and edgier than lots of novels aimed at a broader audience. My only complaint about the "Old Kingdom" series is that he tends to fall into a trap lots of authors have when dealing with gender issues. The heroine is strong, noble, and brave while the hero(es) are kind of weak, lost, and ineffectual... at least in this series. Is it really that hard to have compelling heroes and heroines? Butcher does this in spades. George R.R. Martin is also good at this as does Rothfuss (in his one novel thus far). Ah well...

Nix does take the interesting turn of having the heroine be a practicing necromancer. That's freakin' awesome.

Space for Rent

I want to whine about things, but the list is too long and I feel too lazy.

Besides, I'd just be retreading stuff I've already whined about.

And whining is unseemly (not that I usually care).

While coming in to work, I noticed the sanitation workers collecting the morning trash. I wonder what that job would be like? If you could get past the early hours and the horrific smell, would it be any different than - say - a paper route?

Interestingly enough, I don't see as many hookers walking around in the morning as I blaze past on my bike. I always wondered what the hell they were doing out so early. Most sane people are asleep. What kind of business is out that early? I probably don't really want to know.

I did notice a rather large fellow walking down the middle of the street in the direction of oncoming traffic (if there had been traffic other than my bicycle that early in the morning).

He seemed coherent and well-groomed. I didn't stop to ask him what his deal was.

Why can't I find music that satisfies on my iPod this morning? Wait, that counts as whining.

Well? She does...

Reaped

So... "Reaper" finale. Yeah.

Not sure how I feel about it.

On the one hand, I like how they tied Andi to the main plot. It was contrived, but made more sense for the overall story.

On the other hand... WTF??? Seriously? It's the "will of God"?

On the other hand, challenging the Devil to a game of quarters == classic.

Plus: stoned Sock!

Bonus: Nina exorcism!

Overall, it was awesome. I hope the powers-that-be give "Reaper" a new and better home. If not, it shall be sorely missed.

Okay, I lied. I know how I feel about it.

Best Shorts Ever!

I got these today.

I'm not one to labor outside, but if I were, these are the shorts I'd wear.

Sweet bejebus, I sound like a commercial.

Prop 8

So the California Supreme Court has made their ruling re: the annoying "Proposition 8" that prohibits gay marriage.

The court let Prop 8 stand but allowed marriages prior to Prop 8's passing to also stand.

Can't say I agree with the court regarding the former, but at least they let the latter alone.

So now Californians - by a simple majority vote - can deprive a minority of a right? That's legal?

What a load of bullshit.

Oh well, next ballot someone will have something there to overturn Prop 8, then the next time around someone will try to pass it again, then remove it... blah blah blah...

All because some fucking bigoted idiots can't deal.

Can't say I'm terribly proud to be a Californian today.

Yet more economic stimulus

In an effort to support more local businesses and further-deplete my bank account, I got another Chrome Bag over the weekend.

This time, I got a Ranchero backpack.

Me likey.

It's got more carrying capacity than my old backpack and sits better on my shoulders than my trusty and much-beloved messenger bag.

I regret nothing, though my next credit card bill will not be fun.

Learning Disability

I was never in the Army, but I did watch M*A*S*H as a kid.

I took a lesson from that show... or at least I've tried to take a lesson from that show: Never volunteer.

Seriously. I've been in countless clubs, organizations, and jobs where volunteers were called for and I've stepped up.

I've never actually benefitted from volunteering. Quite the opposite, actually.

So why do I keep making this mistake?

Probably f***ing masochism.

Red Cliff II

Being one for immediate gratification, I trucked down to a local store and picked up the second Red Cliff DVD.

Wow.

Good fun there.

John Woo outdid himself for this one. I got my fix on sword-fighting and the random bits of ridiculous kung-fu plus an added bonus of a massively destructive naval battle.

Was it historically-accurate? Seriously? No, of course it wasn't. It was pure awesome all the same.

The oddness of a Bay Area Summer

I'm counting down to "Burn Notice" starting again. I do believe the "Reaper" season finale is tomorrow. Can't wait for that.

I'm trying to parse out how the weather forecasters predicted warm-to-hot temps over this weekend. Yesterday it was mid-to-late autumn cold. Seriously. I don't think I saw any actual sunshine yesterday at all.

Today I see something that might actually be sunlight. Maybe. Still chilly outside.

Mind you, I don't have a problem with cool weather. I quite like it. One can always put on more layers and get warm. One can only take off so much in hot weather and stay comfortable. My rampaging Visigoth ancestors left me with a better tolerance for cool weather than my Mediterranean ancestors gave me for warm weather.

I still like to be able to more-or-less plan my wardrobe for the day. I mean, it was chilly inland yesterday. That's pretty rare in May.

'Tis Memorial Day. It's a day when one should take a moment to remember the sacrifices of our armed forces.

While I'm seriously trying to observe that by keeping the spirit of the holiday in mind, I also find myself looking through my movie collection for something that tickles my fancy.

So of course I'm watching a marathon of "Firefly" and "Serenity".

Red Cliff

I got Red Cliff on DVD about a month back. It sat on a pile in the chaos that is my living room - unwatched - until yesterday.

Why did I wait so long?

Damn this is a good movie! I need to get the sequel now.

Hmm

For "Reaper" fans out there, there's possible actions to take to save the show.

I'm prepping an actual snail-mail letter (I have no faith in email and/or electronic petitions) to ABC Entertainment Group.

Can't hurt, I guess. If "Dollhouse" can get renewed, anything can happen.

Though Whedon's name is pretty holy...

The Planet of the Dead

I've seen two of the four Russell T. Davies "Dr. Who" specials now. The first one was set in Victorian England and had a Cybermen flavor to it.

The second, was "The Planet of the Dead". I finally finished watching it.

I must say, I quite enjoyed it. Michelle Ryan is much better in this than she was in "The Bionic Woman". It was cheesy, but fun. Typical "Dr. Who".

Can't wait for the next one.

Trashy Awesome

I got a movie today: Oneechanbara: The Movie (aka "Chanbara Beauty")

In summary: Aya (Otoguro Eri) a hot woman in a bikini and wearing a cowboy hat uses a samurai sword to fight zombies so she can do battle with her schoolgirl-uniform clad sister, Saki (Nakamura Chise), who also uses a samurai sword.

For good measure, Aya is aided by Reiko (Hashimoto Manami), a gun-toting, leather clad, biker chick.

BEST!
MOVIE!
EVER!
[edit]If you're essentially someone with very... ah... basic... interests. [/edit]

One of the best things ever

... is my 19 year old neighbor semi-convincingly telling me I look ten years younger than I really am.

At this point I really don't care if the girl was being sincere or not. The effort flattered the hell outta me and brought me out of a lousy mood.

The world is a funny place.

Coffee Snob

I was sent a link to Coffee Snob's Cold Drip Coffee Maker.

Neat looking, if pricy.

Data Dump

1) Duluth Trading Company "CoolMax" shorts are indeed stain resistant, as advertised.

2) Vibram Five Fingers shoes feel odd but are strangely cool.

3) Walking three miles is not a great way to break in new shoes.

4) I go through sunglasses very quickly.

5) I love saying to my recently married buddies: "My best to the missus."

IMAX

... in Emeryville's AMC theater is totally not worth the price.

Not even a little bit.

Not even for Star Trek (which is my favorite movie for 2009).

A happy moment

Yesterday a little before 10:30 A.M., my friends MF and X tied the knot in a civil ceremony.

Yes, I'm pretty sure it was civil, despite having it done at a city hall. Uncivil weddings are a different matter.

Their story is an interesting one, but I'm not going to take up electrons telling it here. I just wanted another place to voice my congratulations to them (though I'm fairly sure they don't read this blog) and wish them many, many, many, many years of happiness together.

Disbelief

I seriously can't believe FOX renewed "Dollhouse".

Wow.

A Grand Experiment

906 posts (not counting this one) over one and a half years.

I skimmed through most of my past ones.

Wow. I had no idea I could fill a year and a half with mostly banal nonsense for so long.

Maybe I should consider a career in politics.

Good clean fun

A luau at Forbidden Island became the centerpiece of this Sunday.

I can't say I ate anything there. I had three drinks and then switched to water.

Some friends appeared. It was pretty fun.

Some Picante Mexican food was dinner. Mmm...

Tired.

wipeout

As soon as I got home from work yesterday, I set to preparing goodies for a BBQ. I prepped some Venetian loaf (a sort of garlic bread with more stuff in it) and a strawberry dessert that is quite tasty.

Then I went to MF's bachelor party.

I was the designated driver for the evening, so my alcohol intake was limited to a couple of beers early on, followed by water.

In the grand tradition of bachelor parties, it was wild, fun, and expensive. Everyone seemed to have a good time. I don't mind having been the DD, especially since we didn't leave S.F. until sometime after 2:30 A.M.

I got home sometime after 3 A.M. I'd woken at 4 A.M. the morning prior.

To say I was tired is a bit of an understatement.

Today I took care of some family matters, then was off to the BBQ. I just got home. Good fun.

Goddamn I'm tired.

ugh

Had dim sum for lunch.

So... full...

I think I managed to accomplish a couple of faux pas (faux passes?) as well.

Glad I rode my bike today.

It's gonna be a wild one

Yet another super-social weekend lined up.

I've got a bachelor party to attend tonight. I'm sure we'll be drinking tea and playing gin rummy in a church basement. Yep.

Tomorrow I'll attend a friend's bbq after family obligations are satisfied. I really should prep something for that... I won't have a ton of time before then.

Sunday I'm going to avoid the sun and be indoors for drinks with [censored] after family obligations are satisfied.

What an oddly-busy week this has been. I wish I could say I've been super-productive with work, but my office network does not appear to like me. Makes it hard to actually get stuff done that I'm paid to do.

Shoot. I was supposed to make brownies for a friend's birthday. I completely forgot.

Oh well.

For Today's Fun

I went out to the TAD Gear outlet store in S.F. this morning.

Google Maps does not give good directions to this place. Just FYI.

This place is awesome! The staff were cool and helpful with questions. I could easily spend my savings account there... which is a bad sign.

It was a bit of a surprise to me that I left spending what I did.

The only downside is the complete and utter lack of anything that resembles parking in the area. Seriously. I lucked out and got a spot, but for the most part the area was packed.

Throughout all this, I am still processing "Lost". The episode finally showed us the mysterious "Jacob" and introduced a new counterpoint to Jacob. I'm most puzzled and intrigued.

And they killed off two of the characters I actually like (or seemed to be killing them).

Bastards.

Only misplaced

I've watched the season finale to "Lost" while doing laundry this morning.

Wow.

I'm still processing it.

Just... wow.

I have to wait until 2010 to get closure on this? AAAAHHHH!!!!

Television

Just finished my recording of last night's season finale for "Fringe".

AAAAH!!!!!

Gateways into alternate realities! Portal slicing! Dopplegangers! Inter-dimensional kidnapping! LEONARD NIMOY!!!!!

...

...

...

Breathe... breathe...

I can't wait 'till the fall for more! I can't! AAAAHHH!!!!!

Aaaah!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

I'm not sure what gets me more with this:

- The title: Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
- The fact it stars Lorenzo Lamas
- The fact it stars Debbie Gibson

Yes, I remember Deborah "Debbie" Gibson from the 80's.

Aaaaah!!!!!

Lessons for the Future

Okay, it's 2009.

Why the hell don't we have practical, reusable spacecraft yet? Oh, we have the space shuttles... but we're "retiring" those pretty soon and as spacecraft, they're not really practical. They're good for shots to one location and back. They can't - for example - go from the Hubble telescope to the ISS.

Why has it taken so long to plan another trip to the Moon? Why haven't we landed people on Mars yet?

Seriously. We have all kinds of crazy technology now. What are we doing with it?

We're blowing the shit out of each other and ignoring the impact of our technology on our world.

We're planning new and interesting ways of eroding privacy and messing with information distribution.

In short, we're using our technology for short-sighted power grabs and shell games instead of more forward-thinking endeavors.

By "we" I mean those who hold the positions of decision-making in the institutions of power in the world today. Sure, there's plenty of visionaries and entrepeneurs out there who have thoughts on how to implement new ideas, but it's hard to get very far when the real resources are being dedicated to squabbling and mediocre paths that just maintain a failing status quo.

I guess Star Trek is just making me antsy again.

We're on a tiny little globe that's important, but getting overtaxed. We, as a species, need to expand our search for resources beyond our world so we don't destroy where we came from.

Plus spaceships are just cool.

Whee!

I can tell a webcomic has hit a certain level of importance to my nerd-saturated soul when I start to consider a storyline pure fanservice.

Sluggy Freelance has a Bun-Bun vs. Oasis storyline going on right now.

If you don't know what that means, you don't read Sluggy. If you do, then you probably appreciate the level of cool here.

I'm so happy...

A State of Confusion

Those who seek me will likely be confounded for a few weeks. I am working an odd schedule that has me taking days off every other day to visit a family member.

So essentially I get to sleep in every other day with a flipside of heading to a warm-warm-warm place for a large part of a day.

It's kind of neat.

It's a bit disorienting to work every other day, though.

Yesterday was especially odd. It was nice to sleep in but I roused myself reasonably early to get my car in for servicing. As I was about my morning breakfast preparations, my car alarm blared.

I raced to my car and found it was okay. Subsequent investigation makes me think someone was breaking into my neighbor's storage unit next to my car and they bumped the car.

My 'hood is getting a bit troubling.

The car service went smoothly enough. I visited my family member while the work was getting done. It was a minor service, so... "ouch" when compared with an oil change but not nearly as bad as a major service.

I then promptly went home and made pasta sauce while considering a second go at Star Trek.

I dithered and tried to talk a friend of mine into going with me, but she decided not to go. By then I figured I'd just kick back, watch "Reaper", and go to bed.

Good choice.

I can always go tonight, after all. Heh heh heh.

Trekking

I saw it.

Oh my God.

I... I'm speechless.

I had a nerdgasm.

The movie may have a few plot flaws. I honestly haven't dwelt on them (and I'm OCD when it comes to plot and continuity).

This movie was pure awesome. Oh sure, the villain was kind of a loser. The villain didn't matter. What mattered was the the ride. The casting was brilliant. The story was tight. The visuals were stunning. The acting was solid.

Gets an A+ from me. I'm going to go see it again as soon as I have time.

Wow. That's a lot of pain

Something didn't land right after the test Sunday. My leg hurts. Doesn't hurt so bad that I can't walk on it, but there is pain there.

I rode my bike in this morning and used muscles that have not seen much use in 2009 so there's new pain to mix in with the old.

My class is in a weird kind of limbo (I don't know when the next session is) so I'm going to get my exercise the old-fashioned way (bike and jogging) until they update their calendar.

mmm

Tasty tiki drinks followed by delicious Chinese food.

Life is good.

I live

and I survived my test.

Still too soon to say I passed. I dunno just yet. I can't say I got a lot of sleep last night, so I'm pretty dead tired just now.

Headed out for drinks shortly. Lord but I need them.

Dolls in da house

So that was pretty much it for "Dollhouse".

And wow. What a finale!

I gotta say, I'm impressed. Now I want to see what season two would be like.

What a shame FOX will probably never produce it.

Now I'm ready

... I think.

I got a lot of good practice time in. I think I worked out all the issues I had before.

Alas, I think I managed to add new ones.

I started trying to do a certain type of roll that I'm not very clear on how to do. I hurt my head/neck. I think I've worked it out... I'll know tomorrow morning.

And then my partner tried a throw. I landed... harder than I'd expected.

My leg still hurts from the impact. I suspect I'll have a bruise.

So my middle/upper back hurts right between the shoulder blades and my leg is giving me trouble.

Hopefully I'll feel better on Test Day.

Clothes Horsing Around

Just in time for the weather warming up, I got a new jacket to replace my disintegrating Scottevest jacket.

I must say, I do like this TAD Gear jacket. It's sturdier than the Scottevest jacket, for one thing. It's got loads of pockets, just as the Scottevest jacket has. The TAD Gear jacket's pockets seem much sturdier and better-constructed.

The jacket is a smidge heavier, but that's fine.

I modelled for E. She warned me that I should not consider any criminal activity while wearing the jacket. It "makes noise".

I shall add that to the list of reasons why I should not consider a career change into the criminal underworld.

It's nice to know E has my back. She's good people.

Whedoning

So tonight is the last installment of Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" - for the season if not forever.

I'll record it. I might even watch it. I'm uncertain how I've felt about the show. It's an interesting premise and I certainly like the cast. I was never convinced that Eliza Dushku could convincingly handle the range that the role of Echo demanded. The other Doll characters managed fine, but Dushku... wasn't fantastic. And I like Eliza Dushku as an actress.

It was a rough show. It lacked a certain compelling element to it. It needed polish.

Oh, I'm talking about it like it's already cancelled. It's not announced as gone, but we all know FOX. "Dollhouse" is toast.

And I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

Let Loose the Howl!

The full moon was hanging over the western horizon this morning like a glowing yellow Eye of Sauron.

It was awesome.

And it helped me spot the law enforcement representative who was lurking with his lights off - presumably to catch scofflaws who would violate the speed limit and/or ignore traffic signals.

I was a good little weredriver. I'm sure I disappointed him.

I'm rather bummed that I won't be able to see Star Trek 'till next week, but such is life. I'm actually impressed with myself that I have higher priorities than a sci-fi movie.

Maybe there's hope for me yet.

...

...

...

Nah.

Oh well. It's Friday. Another work week has ended. This one will be my last 5-day work week until June. Should be interesting.

A smattering of utterances and pronouncements

I watched my recording of last night's "Lost". It was an utter delight of time-travelly wonkiness and had the added bonus of actually making me start to like the character of John Locke again.

You have no idea what an accomplishment the writers have wrought with that.

Try saying "writers have wrought" twenty times. Really. Try it.

Fun, isn't it?

So I also tried one of my 250 anniversary Guinnesses (Guinni? What's the singular of Guinness? Guinness? Whatever). It was quite delicious and had an unusual flavor to it.

I approve.

I had to hit the laundromat today in order to get laundry done thanks to my neighbors dominating our tiny apartment building laundry room. It was a pricey visit, but worth it. I got everything done in an incredibly fast time and got to relax with The Name of the Wind while doing so.

I'm now past Kvothe's time in Tarbean, which was really my least-favorite part of this novel.

And I love all of this novel with a passion beyond words. I love it so much that I actually want Patrick Rothfuss to take his time with the next book so it's just right.

His words are ambrosia.

Woot.

No Pressure!

Quick! Name a novel - either a standalone or first in a series! It has to be good!

That essentially paraphrases the phone call I got over an hour ago.

EEP!

I suggested The Name of the Wind (mainly 'cause it's in my bag right now), but V has already read that.

Hmph.

NeverWhere by Neil Gaiman was next on my mind.

I should've suggested Good Omens. I would up going with Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson.

In retrospect, I'm not sure it was a great suggestion. I love Pattern Recognition, but I think I'm in the minority among my friends.

Oddly enough, Gibson's quasi-sequel, Spook Country did nothing for me. I got bored and couldn't finish it.

Crap. I should've recommended the three Kate Daniels books by Ilona Andrews: Magic Bites, Magic Burns, and Magic Strikes.

Bah.

Two things

1) I hope whomever created the clamshell packing system gets shiv'd with the material.

2) It is mine!



A sixpack... mmm...

Outburst v.2.0

So IT has restored me to access.

Somewhere along the way, I think when I reset my passwords yesterday I must have missed a step.

I'm not sure how.

I'm quite confident that whatever the error was, it was on my end and not on IT's end.

That's - unfortunately - not comforting.

Bleah.

Outburst

My IT department is doing stuff to my PC. After I left yesterday, they were going to do more of their voodoo. They required my login information, so I changed my password to something simple, gave it to the appropriate person, and took off for the day.

I got in this morning and found a message from one of the IT people. They couldn't log in.

I tried my revised password.

No dice.

I tried my old one.

Again, no dice.

I tried all caps. Nope.

After several tries, the system locked me out.

It's about 5:15 am as I'm doing all this. I have one cup of coffee in me. I didn't sleep very well. I'm already a little testy.

I lost it.

I was swearing at the top of my lungs and kicked the holy shit out of some discarded Amazon boxes in my cube (I really should clean up).

I'm glad there's nobody else on my floor this early in the morning.

So... um... yeah.

I have more doubts as to my ability to pass my test on Sunday.

We'll see how things go, I guess.

In the meantime I am trying to parse social data that I'm not really suited to handle. It's making my head hurt, mostly due to self-inflicted damage.

To deal, I'm doing my normal thing: turning to escapism.

Last night's "Reaper" was not all that great until the end. It was kind of neat having Sam try to get someone damned to hell, but I didn't find the overall story terribly compelling until the end. Even that wasn't fantastic.

Last night's "Fringe", on the other hand, was rock solid awesome and jam-packed with weird.

I'm trying to figure out when I'll have a chance to see Star Trek. I'd originally considered Friday, but it turns out my class will have practice time after all so I need to take advantage of the time to train with my partner. I could go later, but by then the crowds will be crazy.

Maybe I'll go Sunday night or Monday night.

Funny how I'm jazzed over this and I could give less of a rat's ass about Wolverine.

teatari-shidai

I really need to cut back on the baking and dining out. Half-jokingly, my friend E asked "have you gained weight?"

She claimed poor English and revised her statement with a series of flattering "you look healthy" statements, but being a neurotic mess, I got self-conscious anyway and weighed myself.

Ouch.

Yeah. I need to get my lazy ass on the jogging trail more. Martial arts class alone isn't cutting it to offset the crap I've been eating of late.

---

I framed my picture yesterday. My available wall-space is limited in my small apartment, but I found a good spot.

It's quite the collection of art. I've got an old-old-old picture of dogs playing poker, then a scroll-print of Chinese art (one of the seasons?) I got in Guilin... or Chongching, then the science pic.

It's probably an accurate representation of my tastes: utterly random.

---

I'm completely unmotivated for this weekend. My game preparations are a mess. I'm honestly not sure I can complete my martial arts test with any degree of success.

I have a ton of shows to watch. I kind of just want to take a whole day and veg out in front of my PC and/or TV and get caught up.

Cool project

This is so cool!

Mercury Men

Walking Commentary

I finished Ilona Andrews' latest book: Magic Strikes.

Loved it.

This was a fun, solid adventure romp without getting too fluffy. The dynamic between Kate Daniels and Curran was fun without being excessively "romance-novelly"... and it's pretty romance-novelly in parts.

Now I'm back to re-re-re-reading The Name of the Wind.

I tried to read The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett, but after a couple of chapters it wasn't getting me.

I had the same problem previously with Bitten by Kelly Armstrong, though I forced my way through half of the book before giving up.

I still haven't been able to make myself read Kim Harrison's For a Few Demons More, mostly for the same reasons I didn't like Bitten. Harrison's stuff is too "chicky".

It's a preference thing.

After getting home I got caught up on the Viz media offerings of Naruto Shippuden. Kind of mediocre, but not too bad. One of my friends gave me some episodes of Bleach to watch and I've got a few other things to get caught up on.

I just need time.

I was on a hell-bound tear to get ready for my game on Saturday then one of my friends contacted me to let me know he had to abruptly leave town due to a death in the family.

I feel horrible for him and it's kind of taken the wind out of my sails for the game.

Going to be one of those days.

"Yes" is totally an answer

Sheldon

Apparel!

Plus! A shirt!!!

I was initially sketchy on this site as they require DOB as part of registration, but they're very responsive in email and use Paypal for payment.

It's mine!

I got it on Friday.

Now to get a frame.

And then to find a place to hang it...

Overbooked?

I really need to look at my planner when I book stuff.

My weekend is gonna be insane.

I have a game Saturday, which should be fine enough but the next day I have my test.

Crap.

Meh. I can do this.

creeeeaaaaak

Weird dreams last night. Really uber-weird dreams. There was a zoo involved. And cocktails with various friends. And a marching band.

Hmm. Maybe I ate too much pasta last night?

I'm cranking the tunes. This is pretty much my only full work week of May. I can deal.

Scottevest Woes

Last year-ish I discovered Scottevest, a company that makes jackets and other attire with ridiculous amounts of pockets.

I'm always on the lookout for a nice jacket that has good storage capacity. Mainly 'cause I carry way the hell too much junk.

So over several months I purchased their:

* Essential Men's Jacket
* SeV Cotton Tshirt(s)... I got four, actually
* TEC shirt(s)
* TEC hat
* and recently a Tropical Jacket

Until this weekend, if you'd asked me I would have said I loved their stuff.

Oh, the tshirts had some problems. The pockets are pretty flimsy and rip easily, making them pretty useless for carrying keys and a cell phone.

And then over this weekend, my TEC shirt and Essential Men's Jacket both decided to utterly crap out on me. The zippers - already fussy things - just broke. Completely. I had to rip the zippers open to access the pockets.

To say I'm unsatisfied is an understatement. Scottevest says on their website that they guarantee their products and all that. I could pursue getting the zippers and pockets repaired, but I'm pretty angry right now and the thought of paying to ship garments to Illinois isn't filling me with joy.

Bleah.

Quack Up

One day, I went to lunch with some friends. On the way back, one of my friends started cooing, oohing, and aaahing. Whatever was the commotion?

Geese. And baby geese.

Cute, eh?

Aaaah... Oishii desu ne!

I met up with my friends T & K at Juban in San Francisco Japantown.

I HIGHLY recommend this place if you have the chance to go. Great food!

The service was awesome too, but I think K had something to do with that part.

I had a powerful hunger, too. I hoofed it from Civic Center BART to Japantown, which is a bit of a walk.

I regret nothing.

I'd walk five times the distance to hang with T & K. They're totally worth it.

They gave me a lift home, which is way out of their way. Bless them.

Wow

Yesterday was just crazy. How did I survive it?

After work, I hastened to class in the pouring rain. Somehow I survived class. I'm not entirely sure how that happened. I then ran like hell (in the same pouring rain) to the train (poet and I didn't know it!), then ran from my train stop to my apartment.

Again. Wet. And by now cold.

I took a hot shower and cleaned up. And by this point, I was not feeling good. I was starting to suspect my "allergies" were indeed a cold in the making.

Regardless, I toughed up, called V, and drove out to pick her up. We were a-headin' to Coach Sushi to celebrate her birthday. We got there and found good (free!) parking and waited... and waited... for a free table.

MF and X were meeting us there. Mere minutes before a table peopled by a family with hordes of restless rugrats was freed up, MF and X arrived so our standing time together was minimal.

And then we ordered sake and sushi and it began.

For the unenlightened, Coach Sushi (in Oakland) offers great Japanese food and a bottomless sake cup in the cedar pine box cups.

Coach (the guy who pours the sake) makes damn sure that cup is full.

Ye gods.

I had to chill after a bit (as I was the driver). It was a struggle.

After eating our fill of much sushi and other delectable treats, we jaunted back to V's to decompress then exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks. I withdrew home about 10 and pretty much flew back to my apartment.

I was asleep about ten... fifteen... minutes after I got home. Utterly dead to the world.

I woke up feeling fine, so clearly I didn't have a cold. Good thing.

Damn that was fun. I'm glad my allergies or whatever didn't interfere with dinner.

And now I'm off for more good food with other friends. Wow. I'm a social butterfly!

How... odd.

Energy Level Low

I want to do my Friday Happy Dance (which is usually me sitting in my chair, raising my arms for 2 seconds, and saying "happy dance"... but I digress).

I'm so drained I lack the energy.

While I acknowledge I might be fighting a bug, I suspect that I'm suffering from a bought of severe allergies.

I really want to go home and go to bed.

I really need to go to class today, so I'm going to tough it out in the office.

And I'm absolutely doing sushi tonight, come hell or high water.

The latter is quite possible. It's supposed to rain.

May Day! May Day!

It's May Day!

What the hell does that even mean?

Wikipedia says:

May Day occurs on May 1 and refers to Haymarket incident or any of several public holidays.[1] In many countries, May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, which celebrates the social and economic achievements of the labour movement. As a day of celebration the holiday has ancient origins, and it can relate to many customs that have survived into modern times.

So... May Day is just a random quasi-holiday?

Are we supposed to build bonfires and sacrifice chickens or something? Do we throw virgins into volcanos?

Heh. Apparently May Day is "Lei Day" in Hawai'i. So much for virgins and volcanoes.

...

...

...

I'm actually overwhelmed with dirty jokes I can add to that.

Lost Redux

"Lost" has a crazy cast. My opinion on the characters (listed in the order I found them on IMDB):

Sayid Jarah - Awesome. He's one of my favorites. Making one of the characters Iraqi in a post 9-11 world was awesome.

Jack Shepherd - Sucks. He's temperamental, tyrannical, has the emotional maturity of an eggplant, whiny, and inconsistent. One minute he's a skeptic demanding proof for the weird crap on the island, the next minute he's embraced the idea of "destiny" without any transition. Apparently the character of Jack was supposed to initially die in the pilot episode. I wish they'd done that.

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes - Okay. He's the "everyman" and he's not some square-jawed hero. The character has gotten some great moments in as being an astute observer and being able to talk to the dead. Unfortunately, the writers feel the need to make him a cliche as a "dumb fat guy" and that bugs.

James "Sawyer" Ford - Above average. He's a fairly complex character as the con-artist with a literary side to him. I think this character would have been a better lead than Jack.

Sun Kwon - Awesome. My crush on Yunjin Kim aside, the character of Sun has dimensions to her that I've liked. There are moments that she's fipped into "WTF?" territory, but every character has. Given I'm totally in love with Yunjin Kim (okay, maybe just infatuated...), I expect that's given me a bias. Kim apparently tried out for the role of Kate, but was considered a "bad fit" for the role. So the writers created the role of Sun for her. Yeah. I'm happy.

Kate Austin - Meh. Evangeline Lilly is quite striking, but I find her character less-compelling. The outlaw lady should be more interesting, but the writers just can't seem to figure out what to do with her beyond make her the prize for Jack and Sawyer to fight over. Kind of stupid. She's supposed to be kind of tough and badass, but her portrayal in the story makes her seem kind of whiny and ineffectual.

John Locke - sucks. He was originally among my favorites. A crippled man who could suddenly walk, Locke was mysterious and had all these mad survival skills. He just embraced the island as a mystery and ran with it. Then he got weird and inconsistent. One second the writers had him a fanatic of the island's mystery. The next he was a skeptic. And he'd just arbitrarily decide he "knew" what the island "wanted/needed" without any real justification. He's since gotten weirder and more whiny. Hate the character now as much as I hate Jack (or more!). Terry O'Quinn - the actor - is aces in my book though. The guy rocks!

Jin Kwon - Above average. Sun's husband is played by Daniel Dae Kim, a veteran of many a sci-fi classic like "Crusade". Thus I have a soft spot for Mr. Kim (no relation to Ms. Kim). The character was initially a bit rough, but they've done some interesting stuff with his backstory up to the point when everyone got separated. Now... he's kind of bland.

Claire Littleton - Above average. The secret half-sister of another character, Claire was the very pregnant young lady who gave birth to the child Aaron. I always liked the character and was startled when she was suddenly shifted off the show.

Charlie Pace - Sucked. A substance-abusing rocker with weird mood swings. I hated Charlie for reasons that had less to do with the character and more to do with similarities the character had to people I know in real life. Monaghan is a good enough actor, but I must admit I cheered when Charlie met his end.

Ben Linus - Awesome. The man I love to hate to love to hate to... This guy is just aces. Pure gold. Can't get enough of him. Can't figure out why someone hasn't shot him in the head.

Michael Dawson - Meh. "Waaaaalt!" The writers really didn't know what to do with him. A shame, 'cause Harold Perrineau rocks.

Desmond Hume - Awesome. Another favorite, Desmond wasn't on the airplane that crashed on the island. He got there another route and has this weird but awesome connection with Penny, the daughter of Charles Widmore who... oh it gets complicated. Desmond was a mystery and had a crazy intensity that was just neat. The writers clearly haven't known what to do with him, but at least they've given his story some happy moments.

Juliet Burke - Average. The "Other" who went over to the good guys, Juliet's story was pretty interesting. I just wish they wouldn't have her be the consolation prize for whomever isn't making time with Kate.

Shannon Rutherford - sucked. She's dead. Good.

Walt Lloyd - meh. Kid on a show. The actor made the kid really interesting, but the writers clearly didn't know what to do with him, so he's gone.

Daniel Faraday - Awesome. The scientist who came later to the island, Faraday had the potential for answers. Then the writers did something that has made me rather angry with them.

Miles Straume - Awesome. The weird guy who - like Hurley - can interact with the dead. Miles has an interesting backstory and has been a fascinating addition.

Mr. Eko - Awesome. When they killed Mr. Eko, it was as though they killed a part of the show.

Boone Carlyle - Sucked. Glad he's dead.

Ana-Lucia Cortez - Good. It was a shame they killed her off.

Libby - Good. See above re: Ana-Lucia.

At this point I'm getting into minor characters and I pretty much like all of them.

Why do the minor characters always rock? Hollywood, you suck.

Shamed

So, some years back I was semi-regularly visiting friends in Japan.

"Semi-regularly" is four trips in roughly a two year period.

The visits inspired me to try to actually learn the language. While I have a fairly good ear for mimicking accents and pronouncing foreign words, I very much suck at retaining word meaning, grammatical structure, and especially meaning of foreign characters.

Good thing I write for a living.

Japanese words are pretty easy to pronounce, in my opinion. I've been exposed to spoken Japanese for most of my life, so it's not that much of a biggie to me.

Written Japanese is a whole other deal.

Japanese uses multiple character sets for their words:

Kanji - essentially Chinese characters
Hiragana - phonetic characters that represent sounds
Katakana - same as Hiragana, but "simpler to write". Kids write in katakana to a certain age. Foreign words are written in katakana (such as my name).
Romanji - essentially roman characters. Writing "arigatou" is writing in romanji.

I can handle romanji. The rest? Not so much. Especially the kanji/Chinese characters. I have multiple reference books from when I was all jazzed to self-train myself, but lacking that self-discipline trait... I haven't used them. I'm not even sure where most of them are in the chaotic mess that's my apartment.

I have cheat sheets for hiragana/katakana and I can more-or-less tell the difference between the two character sets.

That's about all I've retained from studying. It's been about three years since I've really tried to study written (or spoken) Japanese.

One of my friends at work is on a tear to learn conversational Japanese. She can already read/write Chinese, so she's got the hardest part out of the way (in my opinion). She was under the (mistaken) impression that I'm fluent in Japanese, so she asked for my help.

I explained the reality of the situation and loaned her several books as well as my notes from my time with a conversation partner as well as the one class I've taken.

It hasn't even been two weeks. The woman can read Japanese 1000% (yes, one-thousand percent) better than I can.

She's persuading (pressuring... whatever) me to get back into my studies so she has someone to help her parse out the lessons.

In all honesty, at this point she'd serve as an instructor for me. She knows way the hell more than I do, but now I'm inspired a bit to get off my lazy arse and start studying again.

Now if I would just follow-through when I'm at home...

Lostie Time

"Lost".

Yeah.

Okay, so this show has a cast of a bazillion people. Many of them (*cough*Jack, Kate, Locke*cough*) are super-annoying and don't offer anything constructive to the narrative of the plot.

The rest are pretty good, though I'm kind of annoyed that Hurley is pretty much comic relief.

So when they decide to kill off a character, who do the writers pick? They go for the guy who may have been able to provide answers.

And they do it in a super-fucked-up way.

I can't decide if I admire the mindscrewing or if I hate the writers for killing off one of my favorite characters.

I can feel both ways, I suppose.