I thunk it guud

Irony is when people tell me I "think to much" or I "over-think" something.

Oh, if that were true.

Oh well. I guess it's good I've got some people fooled.

Huh. I guess I shouldn't have owned up in a blog. D'oh!

Friday Activities

After sleeping in (I think I netted about 10 hours of sleep last night), I headed out to deal with my day.

My plans were simple:

1) Go to the DMV

2) Go entertain a cat for a few hours

Not too onerous in terms of duties.

Why the DMV? Well, I recently renewed my driver's license and realized my photo and a few other details are a bit off. I thought it would be pretty easy to update them on my day off. Since I mailed off my renewal and it's unlikely the DMV (being a government agency) has even come close to beginning to process it, I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to just update the database with a more accurate photo and the like.

Why yes, I am naive at times.

So yes, that was silly. The DMV wait was pretty short... maybe ten minutes on the outside to talk to a person. The clerk was very polite, efficient, and to the point.

The message wasn't what I'd hoped for. I have to wait 'till my updated license comes in the mail, then jaunt in and cough up $22 to update the details. The clerk explained to me (as though I'm a complete idiot) that if I'd wanted all the details updated at the same time, I should have just done the renewal in person.

I guess now I know.

So then I was off to see the cat. This cat is freakin' huge. It's a massive thing, fed with sides of cow and maybe the odd small child to keep it from devouring the rest of the city block.

And he's an energetic, furry guy.

Laser pointers are awesome for this stuff.

I availed myself of some beers (albeit a bit earlier than I should have, but I digress) and played with the cat for a while.

Now I can chill 'till class.

Ladonia

If you're feeling adrift in life, sign up to become a citizen of Ladonia.

No smoking allowed?

TSA fun

The TSA's prohibited items list is always good fun for reading.

Did you know that you can carry lighters on an airplane now?

Good times.

I didn't realize I could carry scissors under 4 inches long on a plane. That's good to know.

They still won't let me carry a sword on a plane, I see. Bastards.

And no spear guns. That's just unfair.

Actually, I have found myself pleasantly surprised by a lot of this. I don't care about lighters... I've never really been keen on the idea of having flame handy while flying. The scissors bit is a relief as is the screwdriver thing. I do like to have some tools handy.

I wonder how they'd feel about an Atwood Prybaby as a carry on?

9

Vicky found the original for me to watch. Now I'm a bit more intrigued by the movie.

Emptoring my Caveat

My latest buying spree of stuff has hit a few bumps in the road. I've had to start hassling a couple of people to find out what's going on with some purchases I've made.

One of said issues was a technical blip not caused by the seller in question. That seller has already delivered the goods and I've got one birthday present done to my satisfaction.

The other was a bit stickier. I emailed them to find out what's going on with my order (per their website, it should have shipped sometime last week). Their email response seemed a bit pokey, so I called.

Usually when a company promises to call me back with status, I expect a few days to pass before I hear anything (if I hear anything at all).

These guys called me back with status the next day.

Could have just been a lucky day. I found free parking in Berkeley yesterday. That never happens normally.

Either way, I'm happy to see my faith restored in online business... for now.

...mancy

It's sad how this is probably true.

SMBC

zap

Testing the "semi-automatic TASER" by shooting three women in the back.

Is it just me or does this seem like a kind of f*cked up test? A little bit of dickery. A little bit of mysogyny.

Maybe I'm overthinking it.

[Edit]So I showed this to one of my friends. His take was more interesting:

So these guys decided to demo by having three women look as though they're being restrained by six men, then shot in the back and immobilized by an electrical discharge.

Yeah. That sends the right message.

I didn't really think about it, but I guess the people supporting the targets do kind of look like they're restraining the ladies in question. Wow. This video got even creepier.
[/Edit]

Epochs and Ice Ages

What makes me feel old: talking to a law student who was born about the time I graduated high school.

The punkass doesn't have any concept of the Reagan era. I'm not sure if I envy him or not.

He doesn't know about "Max Headroom", so I'm leaning towards pity.

A cry for help (or just a loaded gun)

For some really bizarre reason, I've found myself on an 80's kick for the last couple of days.

80's music, to be specific.

It's kind of creepy. I... I.... I like it, but I don't want to!

So right now I'm listening to a song by "Heart". I think I used to own an LP by them, back in the day. I could be mistaken. I used to work in a music store that sold LPs, so wires could be crossed in the rusty box that passes for my brain.

Yes. LP. Vinyl records.

It's giving me flashbacks, actually.

Somewhere in the depths of my soul, a part of my brain is screaming for me to stop. Reviving "Whitesnake" is akin to unleashing a zombie horde on a schoolyard.

Well now, that's interesting

I got an email from the president of Scottevest regarding a semi-negative review I gave about one of their products.

To their credit, they asked me to contact them regarding the product in question for possible returns. I'll have to see if I still have the garments.

Out of idle curiosity, I went to the site and looked for my review.

Wasn't there.

There aren't all that many reviews of the product in question. Mine isn't there.

I looked for the other semi-negative review I did. That isn't there either.

Huh.

Looks like someone's weeding out stuff on-site, methinks.

Interesting

I was watching the news this morning. They were talking about how San Francisco is considering closing parts of Market street to cars.

Interesting idea. There seems to be some theory that this will ease congestion or somesuch.

I'm unconvinced.

Anyways, one of the bits of the story was how bicyclists were upset at the lack of a bike lane and how cars don't "play by the rules".

I totally get the bike lane thing. Riding a bike in San Francisco as a whole is akin to juggling flaming chainsaws while doing a tightrope over a pit of hungry bears. It's kind of dangerous. There really ought to be proper bike lanes for those insanely-fit folks who can handle the hills and all that.

That said, I find the claim about "playing by the rules" to be a tad hypocritical.

If I had to pay a dollar for every time I saw a car violate a traffic rule and earn a dime for every time I saw a bicyclist violate a traffic rule, I'd have enough money in the bank that I could put down a nice deposit on a house in a good neighborhood... or buy a new car.

Possibly both.

As a bicyclist myself, I totally get where the bicyclists are coming from. You have drivers in a ton or more of metal, often gabbing (illegally) on their cell phones and zipping along with nary a thought to the poor bicicylist who is trying to pedal along at speeds sufficient to not become a stain on the road.

Makes sense.

That said, the law is moderately-clear. If you're on a bicycle, you're a vehicle. You have to obey those pesky things like stopsigns, traffic lights, pedestrian right-of-way, etc.

Bicyclists in San Francisco don't really help their cause much by the self-righteous posturing I often see. "Critical Mass" is the best example of that. Having a thousand bicyclists hijack San Francisco's streets on a busy Friday night by just blazing through intersections, heedless of traffic lights and the like, does not do much to earn respect for the cause. Instead, it usually inspires fantasies best seen acted out in horror flicks.

Is it so hard to find a happy medium?

I guess so. Bummer.

Not so much of the good sign

It's never a good sign when I see two police cars race down the street from my office.

Not cruise, mind you. Race. Blaze. Drive rather fast.

No siren-lights or anything like that. They were clearly responding to something but trying not to draw attention.

Reminds me of the old days when this area was actually kind of scary at night.

Well that was interesting

I agreed to help a friend out at lunch by doing one of the things I'm pretty good at: standing around.

I think the intention was for me to be a "bodyguard". I doubt I intimidated anyone, but I was happy to help my friend out and keep her company on her errand.

The bonus was lunch. Vietnamese sandwiches from some unknown place in Chinatown. Before that I picked up some spongecakes and a massive bag of broken fortune cookies for practically nothing.

The sandwich was damn good. I mean really good. I'm converted now.

There's got to be something in it that's not good for me. Damned if I can figure out what.

Oh well. Tomorrow's gonna suck a bit. I have an afternoon meeting that will likely interfere with after-work plans. Such is life, I guess.

I can't complain too much. At least I'm employed.

Today's Lesson

Gather 'round, children.

Today's lesson is "self-control".

Self-control is when you learn to analyze the consequences of your actions before you do something. So if - after proper consideration - an action seems like a bad idea, you shouldn't do it.

That means, don't succumb to the lure of free shipping if that means you're going to wind up spending more money than you planned on.

Also, don't let enablers lure you into spending money by showing you... OOOH!!! SHINY! WANT!!! WANT NOW!!!! MUST BUY!!!!

AAAAAHHHH!!! Where did I put my credit card? OMIGOD! MUST BUY BEFORE THEY RUN OUT!!!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

CLASS DISMISSED!!!!

So endeth the lesson.

Such a productive day

In talking with one of my friends at work, I realized I go through a pound of coffee beans a week.

I'd think this represents a problem, but it really represents a substantially-reduced intake of caffeine for me.

While I was processing this realization, another friend at work walked by and complimented me on being skinny (a total, but much-appreciated, lie).

I am totally susceptible to flattery. Good times.

MegaTokyo

It's rare that I find a MegaTokyo offering to be particularly funny.

Today's is really funny.

Whyforwherewhat?

I have high hopes that I'll be up-to-speed for my next belt test for my class. My injury only gives me twinges when I do really weird twists. Oh, and jumping jacks.

Unfortunately, the test will probably require weird twists. Oh, and jumping jacks.

And I hate jumping jacks under most circumstances.

---

While I had a busy weekend, I'm hard-pressed to recall any details of anything I did. I suspect Nyquil played a part in that. I was pretty much a basket case on Saturday.

No, wait. That's nothing new.

Okay, I was especially-baskety (is that a word?) on Saturday.

I'm suspecting that I was either hit with a weird allergy episode or I caught a bug from my ill-advised (but oh-so-fun) Forbidden Island run Thursday night which had me sitting in the patio, with the cold foggy air blowing on me, as I enjoyed rummy goodness and played with the laptop.

I do believe it gave me a wee chill.

And alcohol is supposed to kill germs, damnit. Though, since I drove myself there, I couldn't drink enough to kill any germs, I guess.

---

Supposed to be hot today. By coincidence, my re-done order of Duluth shorts are supposed to arrive tomorrow.

Is that a coincidence or just bad timing? It's supposed to start a cooling trend tomorrow, so I'll go with bad timing.

---

I'm giving more thought to getting a new car. I love my current car, but it's getting on in years. I'd rather be able to do a switch over when it's advantageous to me instead of being desperate and getting whatever is handy.

Then again, I really don't want a car payment. Decisions, decisions...

Guilty Conscience?

Boggles the mind.

In no particular hurry, I drove into work this morning. I actually adhered to the speed limit. I coasted along in the right lane of the highway. When I exited, I pretty much held to the posted speed limit.

I reached an intersection and there was a police officer doing his morning rounds.

I passed, went to another intersection and headed to the office. Lo and behold, said officer decided it was time to follow my suspiciously-clean car (I had it washed yesterday by a gaggle of bikini-clad teenage girls, but that's another story).

It's a funny thing. I know I was adhering to the speed limit (and I was paying closer attention as soon as I realized the officer was following me). I know I wasn't doing anything wrong.

All the same, I felt my shoulders tense up. I was feeling guilty for absolutely no reason at all.

It's weird how that plays out. I know I'm not alone in experiences like this. Oh, I don't blame the officer for my neurosis. He was just going about his business. It is odd to see a car taking a kind of random route like mine that early in the morning.

All the same, it's not the kind of start to the morning that I prefer.

But, hey! I have a clean car!

Sunny Sunday

I love Nyquil. Most of whatever was troubling me yesterday seems to have faded in the aftermath of 11 hours of Nyquil-induced slumber.

As a bonus, my leg is almost recovered. Coincidence? I think so.

K-20: Kaijin Niju Menso Den

aka K-20: The Legend of the Mask.

I got it today via DVD. I just finished it.

In short: brilliant.

This is what a modern pulp movie should be.

Set in 1949 in a fictional Japan that made peace with the United States in World War II (and was thus not the target of two atomic bombings), the story centers around a circus acrobat named Heikichi Endo (played by Takashi Kaneshiro, of Returner and House of Flying Daggers fame, and more recently of Red Cliff).

Endo is framed for the crimes of the notorious K-20, a master thief also known as the demon of 20 faces. He's arrested and set for bad things in his life when some thief friends free him. He trains himself in thief techniques to try to catch K-20 (essentially learning parkour and how to become a post WWII James Bond). While training, he accidentally rescues the wealthy Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu) from the real K-20.

It gets complicated, as Yoko is engaged to the master detective Kogoro Akechi (Tôru Nakamura) who is K-20's arch-enemy and is currently hunting Endo.

There's more to it, of course. There's a super-device invented by Nikolai Tesla (which is always good for a charge) and lots of absurd disguises (think "Mission Impossible" masks... all over the damn place). Oh, and Endo is almost a Japanese Spider-Man with the weird devices his buddies make him.

It's a fun romp. The acting is what one would expect. The setting and effects are rock solid.

I loved it.

I highly recommend it, if you can get a copy. I picked up a Hong Kong version (with surprisingly good English subtitles) via YesAsia.

Good times. Gotta love Tesla devices.

Loungin'

Maybe it's allergies. I dunno. I feel semi-crappy, but not too bad now.

I took the time to do some cooking for the week. Made pasta sauce, then made some cookies.

Yum.

I saw an interview on Geekologie with a 20-year-old Jake Lloyd (the kid-Anakin from the horrific nightmare of film that was Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace).

I always felt bad for that kid. I saw him act in the "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" and thought the actor wasn't bad for a child.

Let's face it, it was Lucas's directing that made The Phantom Crap suck so bad. Even Natalie Portman (who can pretty much do no wrong) wasn't all that good in the prequel trilogy. She's a fantastic actress. It was purely what the actors were given to work with.

bleah

I think I have a cold.

This sucks.

A Good Morning

Got a data cable for my laptop.

Got a new exercise ball as a seat for my computer desk.

Got groceries.

It felt good to sleep in this morning. I hit Forbidden Island last night and played on my laptop while enjoying a mai tai.

Made me sleep well last night.

With luck, I'll make it through class tonight. I could seriously get used to these three-day weekends.

Observations

It's kind of amazing with the little, inconsiderate, things that people do all the time.

* Parking too close to another car.

* Taking up multiple parking spaces.

* Stopping to chat with a friend in a market aisle, with kids and/or cart blocking the entire way through.

* Taking up an entire sidewalk.

* Letting young kids run crazy through a public place.

That's just stuff I saw to and from the supermarket today. I could go on about drivers, but then I'd have to own up to the fact that my aggressive, obnoxious driving is likely more a cause of inconsiderate behavior than anything else.

Gah.

TV woes

I'd like to have BBC America.

I'm a fan of lots of British TV offerings (not the least of which includes "Dr. Who").

Instead, Comcast offers me Oxygen, some weird channel called "VS", at least two home shopping channels, and buckets of more crap that wouldn't interest me in a billion years.

Given the transition to digital cable, I have to wonder why providers don't offer a "menu" of channels instead of pre-set packages.

It seems a waste to me to even bother offering me Animal Planet, Oxygen, or the Hallmark Channel. The odds of any of them offering programming that would remotely interest me is about equal to me winning California's Super Lotto jackpot.

Twice.

In a row.

Seriously... why not offer a smattering of local networks (the biggies, NBC, CBS, etc.) and local channels, then offer packages to get a selection of more?

Say $20/month for 10 more channels above and beyond the basic? That's pretty much all I'd ever need or care for.

If they're premium (like HBO), jack the price a bit like normal.

Oh, I don't seriously expect to see this in my lifetime. It's too consumer-friendly and makes too much sense. Instead, I expect providers will twiddle their thumbs and let Internet sites offer content for far less (or let people just torrent what they want and cut the providers out altogether).

It's that simple?

Huh. So I broke out my laptop again last night and played with it a bit.

I managed to tap into a neighbor's wireless somehow.

The connection was insanely-slow, but next thing I knew, I had wireless.

Then my laptop practically ground to a halt as every goddamn program on the thing tried to update itself.

It's times like that when I really hate Microsoft and virtually every industry that's spawned from Microsoft's shoddy practices (mainly antivirus companies).

A moment to rave

So I list a bunch of rather unusual shopping sites in one of my sidebars. These are places I've looked through and found really interesting. They're mainly for my reference (since I only know firsthand of six people who actually read this blog).

With the exception of Botach (which I am currently in the process of getting something from), I've had experiences with all of the listed sites.

Just for the hell of it, I feel obligated to give a special shout-out to Duluth Trading Co. These folks make some pretty awesomely-durable clothes. They're for "tradesmen" and "working folk" (I doubt I qualify as either). As someone who is rather hard on his garments, I've found their stuff pretty damn durable. Plus, many of their garments have ridiculous numbers of pockets.

They also have a guarantee. Most places do, but these guys really haul on it. I just returned a couple of pairs of shorts that I got in the wrong size. It hasn't even been five days and they notified me that my replacements are in the mail.

I love these guys. Love them.

I think I've already raved in the past about TAD Gear. They're pricey, but I like what I've gotten from them.

Rail Riders is also pretty good for durable stuff. They ship really fast.

REI is a holy place. Seriously. They are among the best customer service I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with. Their stock is good for outdoorsy things and their returns policy is very generous.

Atwood Tools is almost a fetishistic interest of mine. I've purchased... oh... hm... maybe a dozen of Atwood's tools? I haven't regretted a single purchase. They're all really well-made and neat. One of his "Prybaby" tools is always on my key chain and is my favorite bottle opener. Being able to buy stuff of his is like winning the Lottery in many ways.

Plus he's pretty cool (via email, I've never met him).

County Comm is... well, you have to see the site. I love their stuff. Clever things. Very clever things. They ship really fast, too.

Think Geek is heaven for geeks who like "stuff". That's all you need to know.

Vibram Five Fingers shoes are some of the oddest, yet most comfortable, footwear I've ever obtained. I'm saving up for another pair. Or two.

I list Steve Jackson Games for reasons that should be obvious if you've read any of my gaming stuff.

I guess that leaves Yesasia, CDJapan, and HKFlix. If some of my movie commentary hasn't indicated my film interests, then these sites should pretty much wipe away any confusion.

What's left? Oh yes, Oakley and Chrome Bags.

I've raved in the past about the backpack I got from Chrome recently. Prior to that, I've been using one of their messenger bags. It's possibly one of my favorite possessions. I still favor the messenger bag. I only switch to the backpack for bicycling (it's easier on my shoulders and has a greater capacity).

Oakley's stuff is hell of expensive. I'm inclined to say it's worth it if you're into their kind of stuff. I got a Kitchen Sink bag from them and it's durable and really nice. I've never seen so many pockets in a single bag. It's kind of crazy.

Okay, I'm done with my cheerleader routine (pause to digest that image... now go vomit... okay, back to business).

Seriously, these are great places. If you're into any of their wares, I recommend you give them a try.

A sharp lesson

We learn at an early age (usually thanks to Mom) not to run with scissors.

It's pretty much common sense once you're older than 5 years old.

I have to add to this: when you're sitting on one of those giant, inflatable exercise balls you really shouldn't play with sharp things, like really, really goddamn sharp knives.

You know what I mean. Those knives that have points so sharp that if they slip from your hand, they draw blood from just the tip touching your leg.

Those kind.

They also puncture those giant, inflatable exercise balls.

That, for the record, is goddamn annoying.

Just sayin'.

The Dork is strong in this one

"The Five Doctors" was waiting for me on my chair this morning.

Oh happy day!

And I think my afternoon meeting got canceled. WOOT!

I'm digesting a Krispy Kreme someone gave me and it's got me rather wired. I can't handle sugary foods like this anymore.

Freakin' awesome

To wit I say "amen"!

The Dork is with me

In the old classic Dr Who days, the key to the Doctor's TARDIS was a distinctive thing. It wasn't some cheap looking standard Yale key like:



No, the TARDIS key was distinctive. Like so:




So, being a dork who shops around, I got my hands on copies of the two more distinctive keys above.

I've got them with my alien abduction dog tag.

Insert nerd chortle here.

This almost makes up for the fact that the postal service lost my credit card bill when yesterday's mail carrier just decided not to deliver the mail for my building. The regular carrier... she's a rock star, but the other guy is a complete twit. I should probably report him to the postal inspector.

Maybe after I'm done nerding out.

SyFycked

Apparently the 2010 season of "Dr. Who" (starring Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor) will air on BBC America rather than SyFy.

As though I needed another reason to view the SyFy channel as a waste of space in my cable lineup.

Kicking a meme in the kneecap

I don't understand the desire in fiction to become a vampire.

I get the whole wanting to be immortal and young forever thing. I really do.

But a vampire? Seriously?

Okay, let's get past the sparkly thing. In mythology, vampires were soulless monsters that - in western tradition - had to not only snack on the blood of humans (who, at the time, were not the most hygenic creatures walking the Earth), but had to avoid the rays of the dayball, sleep in grave dirt, got fried by holy water and crosses, couldn't cross running water, couldn't look in a mirror, and couldn't eat garlic.

No garlic.

Seriously... why would you want to live forever if you couldn't eat garlic? We're talking a quality of life issue here.

Oh, and if you're so vain that you want to live forever, what's the damn point if you can't look in a mirror to make yourself look good? Seriously, if you've taken such extreme steps that you've got to snack on folks, what's the point if you can't check yourself out to see if it's worth it?

And drinking people's blood... yeah. I know lots of people whose blood you don't wanna drink, even if you're undead and don't have to worry about stuff like diseases. Seriously.

Oh, and if you're a vampire in Chinese mythology, you have to hop in a straight line! You can't do corners! Seriously, you can't change freakin' direction!

Regardless of what traditional mythology you draw upon, if you're a vampire, you're undead. You don't have blood moving through your body. So... no hormones. No biological reactions. That likely means stuff like sex, taste buds, all the fun things that elicit pleasure reactions are probably null and void.

It's implied that snacking on people gives pleasure to vampires, but again... what kind of sick f***er thinks it's neat to treat someone like a Slurpee?

Totally not worth alleged immortality. I don't get vamp-heads at all. Much better to become cyborg overlords with access to sophisticated cloning technologies.

That way you can have death rays.

surviving

I actually made it through class without making my leg worse. That's got to be a first for me.

Oh, I couldn't do any running exercises at all and at some point, one of the other students managed to land on my other foot, but all said, it was a pretty good class.

And I think the instructor's stretching exercises managed to loosen something in my leg. It feels a lot better.

Still twinges on stairs or if I think I can jog or run, but it's absolutely improving.

Yay!

In honor of that (and because I wanted to), I made Scharffenberger brownies for the first time in an eon or two. Not too bad. Of course I'm unloading them on the office. Eating these is not a great idea. I had two for "quality assurance" purposes. Heh.

Rents

As I visited my family yesterday, it really drove home to me how lucky I am with my parents.

I can't sew. I've tried. There's just something about a needle and thread that turns into a horrific botch job involving my blood on cloth. If (god forbid) I ever get married, I'm gonna have to find me a spouse willing to do sewing (sexist as that sounds...). I can handle cooking fine, but sewing is beyond my pathetic abilities.

My mom is willing to step up in the rare circumstances where I need patchwork on my clothes. And she does that with a smile on her face and a song in her heart (well... the smile is there, certainly).

And that's not the least of it. She's an awesome cook (she gave me muffins!), gives great advice on a variety of matters, and is pretty much responsible for making me into a geek (thanks for the Tolkein books, Mom!).

My dad should not get shortchanged in this appreciation moment. He is also an awesome cook (his BBQ ribs are what they serve in Heaven and his pasta sauce is what pure awesome tastes like), a drink mixer that would make Pan bow down (his mai tais and hurricanes are so good that I find myself craving them just thinking about them), and is also a source of excellent advice on a variety of matters.

He taught me how to drive. Please don't hold that against him. Any quirks in my driving skills came after he completed his tutelage.

I could go on. I'm not sure I could ever properly ennumerate the various awesome aspects of the two people who gave me life.

I guess I just enjoy the good fortune of having a good relationship with them.

It never hurts that they feed me from time-to-time... and help me when I need sewing jobs done.

It's certainly something I keep in mind when I have to do any heavy lifting for them (the joy of being their physically-strongest offspring... yay...) or any tech support on their computer.

And I don't mind a bit.

Happy Birthday Erik

Today is the birthday of Erik, one of my best friends in the world (I guess I could've stopped at "best friends"... I mean, "in the world" is implied, right? Hm... time for my meds... but I digress). He's has been doing a very entertaining countdown over the last month or so.

It's brought back some memories.

I've been fortunate to be roommates with him, collaborative with him over a creative effort that's dominated most of my free time (and distracted me from less-constructive habits), been honored to be best man in his wedding, and been honored to have him and his lovely wife still important parts of my life.

Happy birthday, my friend. May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.

I've always wanted to say that.

Lazy Sunday Blues

I think my hopes to ride my bike this week are pretty much dashed. The motion that bike pedaling requires is pretty much the motion that hurts.

That said, I think I can do class, just so long as I take it easy on the running motion. Next week is ground work, so I should be okay. I hope.

I gotta say, these three-day weekends of sleeping in are doing wonders to relax me.

I can seriously get used to this.

I really crave a mai tai today. Sigh.

bummer

My Forbidden Island trek with my friends fell through today.

That sucks.

I cleaned my apartment for nothing!

Heh.

Great Fun

We celebrated Erik's birthday in the city last night.

It was pretty much pure awesome.

We met at his home in the hotter parts of the Bay Area and sweltered a bit until piling into the limo.

Yeah, a limo.

We trucked as a group (a good 7 of us, all told) to Magnolia Brewing in the Haight. I'm sure it was quite a sight. Several of us bore multiple tattoos. I had my fancy pork-pie hat and my shillelagh as a walking cane (my leg was/is still kind of hosed). The ladies were all quite striking and each held to a distinct style.

We had an excellent meal complimented by excellent beer. The scenery was nice too.

After that, we chanced a trip out to The Rickhouse. It was packed but looked pretty fantastic. We tried to order a round of absinthe, but we were running out of time to meet our Bourbon & Branch reservations, so we took off a few minutes later.

B&B was calmer than the Rickhouse. Far more sedate. It was also hot as hell inside.

Still, we got a choice table and enjoyed many of the fine concoctions that establishment provides.

One of our number had to leave early-ish, so we limo'd back to Erik's house and that was the evening.

Good times.

I'm thinking all the booze may have helped loosen my leg muscles. I can walk easier today. Still twinges, but not nearly as bad.

Mmm... alchohol...

And best of all, I still get another day before I can tell Erik he's old. Heh.

Friday Happy Dance

A buddy at work recommended some patches to help with the leg pain. I'm trying 'em out. Overall the leg is better today, but it still twinges, so hopefully the patches will work some kind of magic.

Last night's "Burn Notice" was pretty entertaining. Still a little sappy, but it was enjoyable.

Now I'm counting down the hours 'till tonight. Good times are ahead.

snippets of a stream

A pile of Chicken McNuggets on the ground. A big pile. Who dumps a couple of bags of Chicken McNuggets on the sidewalk?

The raccoons will dine well tonight.

I think I'm addicted to NCIS. I'm not sure if I want to be cured or not.

That sauce came out well. Tasty. Maybe I should make another batch.

Why do I keep getting interrupted by recorded calls from local politicians? Do they want me angry? Hulk no like phone.

I need to buy a Skull Phone. It will go well with the decor when I set up my island lair. Too bad Skullcrusher Mountain is already part of a song.

Nerf guns are really, really cool.

Mackie got it right. Ian McShane would be perfect as the 13th incarnation of the Doctor. He'd be terrifying too.

Yay! Presents wrapped! Ready for tomorrow.

Do I re-watch Azumi or do I finish that set of "Uramiya Honpo" episodes?

I can do both.

Variables of Pain

It's kind of funny to see how people react to watching me limp along. Numerous friends who are normally nice to me have been... shall we say... somewhat unsympathetic? Several others who are more a fan of "tough love" (or downright meanness) have been incredibly nice and sweet.

Odd and occasionally funny.

I can feel the knot in my leg loosening. Alas, I tend to think it's much better then I step wrong and realize it's not.

Quite tiresome.

The Perfect Phone

Now this is a phone! (Geekologie)

Silver Lining

I've been reminded by three separate friends that my leg injury is now the perfect excuse to sport a pimp cane.

Booyah!

Time to bust out the shillelagh!

Owie

Yeah. My leg still hurts something fierce.

My usual morning stretching exercises were cut short. Advil is my friend.

I was advised I can expect to feel this way for a few days.

Good times.

The best laid plans...

So I had a good, solid plan this week. I'd attend class regularly and enjoy the warm weather by bicycling on my non-class days.

Since Friday evening is booked, I'd get up early Friday morning and attend class to get my training/exercise in.

It was a good plan.

That was until tonight's class.

I got about an hour into class when we were doing an exercise for evading 2 on 1 attacks.

I was against two higher ranks (one of whom was a black belt). They were damn fast. I backpedaled in an effort to get away.

I'm not entirely sure what happened after that. Suddenly there was this sharp, terrible pain in my calf.

I wasn't standing after that. I wasn't thinking too clearly.

I'm still not sure what happened. Apparently I pulled something and it spasmed.

Sweet bejebus did it hurt.

I couldn't stand unaided for a good half hour. After a liberal does of Ben Gay, it still hurt to stand and walk.

My trek back to the BART station was one of the longest walks I can recall. The walk home from the BART station felt longer. The stairs in my apartment building were incredibly unwelcome.

I don't think I'll be riding my bike tomorrow. I'm damn sure I won't be able to do class on Friday.

Ouch.

Moments

Joy is:

- Finding out that your little DMV problem is easily fixed by filling out one form that the DMV folks are happy to take right then and there. NOTE: in this case, the DMV folks are AAA employees... just in the interest of full disclosure.

- Finding out that your bank problem is actually a pefectly understandable (if still embarrassing) oversight on your part. At least the bank staff were very, very nice and helpful with respect to it.

- An ocean breeze on a sunny, warm day.

- Time spent cheering up a depressed friend.

- smiling, cheerful, friendly people. Especially random ones. I'd like to give a special shout-out to that random lady the next stand over at my bank.

Difficult is:

- resisting the siren lure of dark chocolate

- trying to go cold turkey on someone, then having facetime

- realizing your budget is hosed for the month and maybe next month too

- getting reading time in on a busy, busy day

- the realization that another year's passage is happening awfully quickly

things

The highest compliment I've received this week: Having a friend say "You make my brain hurt and my soul cry."

---

George Lucas is apparently not done raping my childhood.

The cries for mercy from my soiled childhood isn't swaying him to stop. The bastard.

---

io9 says Superman's co-creator did bondage and S&M comics. While I feel a profound sense of "ew" at that news, I'm unsurprised that anyone who imagines spandex-clad frolicking folks would have those sorts of fetish issues.

Just look at the history of Wonder Woman. Ye gods.

Feeding the slavering beast

I got a Get-A-Way Driver tool.

I'm strangely fascinated with this thing.

Okay, maybe not all that strangely.

Teknulugy

I got a laptop.

It's neat. It's purdy. It's maddening.

Let me 'splain:

My laptop has this little pad thingie that emulate the functions of a mouse. I find using it to be about as maddening as trying to sleep on a bed of rusty nails.

Oh, it's easily fixed. I just need to get a mouse for the laptop and I'm golden.

Yeah...

Then there's the wireless function.

So I don't have wireless set up at home. Being a raving paranoid who heeds the Voices when they gibber to me in the dark of night, I have never had a lot of faith in the security of any kind of broadcast signal. There's something strangely comforting for me knowing that the wires connecting my router to the phone and to the PC are keeping things rather orderly.

My laptop, however, has wireless capabilities. There are active wireless networks in my 'hood, but I can't seem to get the laptop to do its connecting thing.

Not sure why.

Meh. I'll probably just go buy a cable so I can connect the laptop to the router and get everything going that way.

It really troubles me that I work in a technology industry and I'm such a complete spaz when it comes to using stuff that most people commonly dink around with and give nary a second thought to.

I'm never going to survive to my parents' age at this point.

And I'm utterly screwed come the Robot Revolution.

Aromatic Goodness

The smell of garlic, onions, and tomatoes fill the air of my cramped little cave-dwelling.

Fresh-made pasta sauce cools on the counter.

The godawful mess is cleaned up. The dishes are drying.

A CD I ordered has come in the mail.

The weather today was simply gorgeous as the ocean breeze began.

I get paid tomorrow.

I have plans with friends both Friday and Saturday. Both events promise to be great fun with friends I have a long history with.

Life is good. I really need to stop bitching about the little things that don't go the way I want.

Life is damn good.

And I have fresh-made pasta sauce! Mmm...

Now entering...

When perversity and irony are the foundations of your universe:

---
You will always have a great coupon for a store when their stock sucks and they don't have anything you want.
---
Anyone you are interested in will not be interested in you. Conversely, you will attract people whom you'd rather not have the attention of.
---
When exercising for health, you will injure yourself.
---
You will always remember to take care of any paperwork issues with a nearby and convenient establishment... when you do not have the paperwork in question.
---
The day you forget your iPod/MP3 player/whatever-your-sanity-tool-is will be the day you most need it.
---
You will always find something you want to buy when your credit is maxed out, you're over-budget, and broke.

When you have the funds to get it, they'll be out-of-stock.
---
You will always get a flat tire when you don't have a spare or any sort of pump/repair gear.
---
When you're pressed for time is when the traffic is bad or the speeding ticket happens. (that one happens even in a universe where perversity and irony don't rule)
---
The more TV channels you have, the less there is of interesting programming.

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Here's why the "AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!".

Just because

I do not need a reason.

Her name is Hwang Mi Hee, just FYI. She's a Korean model/racecar girl/whatever.

No need to thank me. Just doing my job at being thorough.

Warmer Weather

There are signs that we're in a minor heat wave:

- insects get more active

- it's goddamn hot and hard to sleep at night

- etc.

Riding my bike in this morning, I noticed the ladies are back. I only counted two. They were kitty-corner (so to speak), so I figure they work... um... together.

And two blocks prior? A pair of law enforcement stopped some shmuck in a parking lot.

Good times.

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!

From Evil Inc.

Twinges

I hate when people hit me up for money.

It always happens at the most inconvenient time. I'm walking along with groceries in my arms or I'm coming back from a walk to clear my head (like just now) and someone comes along to ask for money for [insert cause here].

I do feel bad when it's some kid hitting me up for money for a cause I'd actually give him money for... if... you know... I actually had any money.

Alas, payday is a couple of days off.

Timing. I tell ya. It's all about timing.

Hee!!

Today's Dresden Codak is pure awesome.

It is!

Puzzling Comment

io9 has an interesting story in which one British critic bemoans the quality of British science fiction vs. American science fiction.

I have to admit this claim kind of blows my mind.

The UK has generated some utterly fantastic shows in science fiction:

- "Dr. Who"
- "Blake's Seven"
- "Ultraviolet" (not the movie, the far superior TV series)
- the "Quartermass" movies
- The "Triffids" TV series

Sure, they aren't pumping the money into the FX that their American counterparts do, but I'll take a low-budget "Blake's Seven" or "Dr. Who" over any episode of "Star Trek Voyager" and sleep well that night.

That's not to say all American sci-fi is crap. I'm personally a huge fan of "Babylon-5", "Farscape" (is that really American or is it Australian? Both?), "I-Man", some of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", classic "Star Trek", and "Firefly" -- just to name a few.

I'd say UK and American sci-fi run pretty much neck-and-neck.

Oddly enough, the critic was (I think) in favor of a recent "Torchwood" mini-series.

I haven't seen any good science-fiction related to "Torchwood". Hmm...

Blooddendum

While I'm unconvinced who would come out on top in a Saya vs Buffy fight, I am quite certain that Saya would make sushi out of Edward.

Sorry, Twilight fans.

Okay, I'm not really sorry.

I'm actually wondering how a Buffy vs. Saya fight would play out.

On Buffy's side, she's the Slayer. She's super-strong, super-fast, and can take incredible amounts of physical punishment. She's adept with a variety of weapons, resourceful, and has that whole Slayer-lineage thing.

On Saya's side, she's 400+ years old, super-strong, super-fast, and can take incredible amounts of physical punishment. She's very adept with the katana but is capable of using other things as weapons (gratings, lead pipes, etc.) and has a monster-lineage thing.

It's pretty even. Saya might be at a disadvantage where modern technology becomes a deciding factor, but Buffy wasn't really a techie, so maybe not.

Yes, I have given this a lot of thought.

I've got this with my "Enterprise vs. the Death Star" scenario.

I've even wondered how the Saya v. Buffy fight would play out. What if it were set in Japan and they both had to do the schoolgirl uniform thing?

Wow. I wonder if I just invented a variation on a fetish?

Nah. I'm sure there's anime out there that amply covers that.

Bloody Hell

I treated myself to Blood the Last Vampire after class.

Hm.

It wasn't entirely what I expected.

First of all, it's set in 1970 Tokyo. It's semi-faithful to 70's fashions... except when it isn't.

Pros:
- the fights are great
- they actually speak Japanese in many parts of the movie
- the fights are great
- Gianna Jun, who plays Saya
- the fights are great

Cons:
- the cgi for the "demons" and the blood sprays is pretty crappy
- the acting is so-so (not unexpected)
- the ending is incomprehensible. I actually heard myself exclaim "what the fuck?" out loud.

Head Scratchers:
- the American girl - Alice Mckee (played by Allison Miller). She has good moments. She has awful, awful moments. I mostly blame the director for the latter.
- Gianna Jun - who plays Saya, the heroine - didn't seem very Japanese to me (based on her spoken Japanese, I guess). IMDB proved to me that I'm right and I really need to get out more.
- Koyuki, who played the heroine from The Last Samurai has a role in this.

Overall, I enjoyed it. The ending sucked, but that's hardly the first movie I've seen with that problem.

yawn

Lazy day.

Watched some recorded TV.

Visited family.

Got toner for my printer.

I'm plagued today with sore muscles still and a lingering headache that doesn't quite go away. It's leaving me slightly testy.

Given that's my worst complaint so far today, I'd say life is pretty good.

Passing Miscellanea

The lyrics from the theme song to "Super Chicken" (per Wikipedia):

When you find yourself in danger,
When you're threatened by a stranger,
When it looks like you will take a lickin', (cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck)
There is someone waiting,
Who will hurry up and rescue you,
just call- for Super Chicken! (cluck, awk!)

Fred, if you're afraid, you'll have to overlook it,
Besides you knew the job was dangerous when you took it! (cluck, awk!)

He will drink his super sauce
And throw the bad guys for a loss
And he will bring them in, alive and kickin' (cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck)
There is one thing you should learn
When there is no one else to turn to
Call- for Super Chicken! (cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck)
Call...for Super Chicken! (cluck, awk!)

That was an awesome cartoon.

---

The sun is out and shining now. I almost feel bad about not bicycling to work. I think I'd feel worse if I had, as the Advil isn't doing much to deal with the aching muscles from yesterday.

Once again, I'm asking my inner-masochist why the hell I'm taking these classes.

"They're fun, that's why."

That's always the answer.

Damn inner-masochist.

---

I've updated my sidebar of ridiculous numbers of links to sites. I actually do get work done... just for the record.

Really.

I swear.

Cross my heart.

Not so big on the hoping to die, though.

---

I'm seriously thinking of driving out to Forbidden Island after doing laundry tonight. Maybe a mai tai will help kill the pain.

---

I watched a repeat of "NCIS" last night. What does it say about me when I recognize alumni actors from two different "Star Trek" shows among the cast?

It says "nerd". I know that. The question was rhetorical. Jeez...

Mighty Morphin' Memory

Back in 1975, around the time of disco, bell-bottoms, awful polyester, an utter lack of anything resembling fashion, and dinosaurs, there was a show aired called Goranger or, as I saw it translated, "The Five Rangers".

Years later, variations of this would be the innumerable flavors of Power Ranger shows that grace the airwaves for kids.

I got to see pretty much all of the original, back in the day. I even had the poorly-articulated toys. I remember their giant mecha, their weird weapons (the Pink Ranger had exploding earrings), and all that stuff.

It was a rarity among kid's shows that I recall. It had an actual story arc of sorts. When the show ended in 1977, I remember watching the last episode and being surprised to see actual closure to the story.

American-made kid's TV shows didn't do that. They just got abruptly cancelled. No pesky continuity and all that. Just - BOOM! - gone.

Interestingly enough, I saw toys for Goranger in random junk-toy bins while I was wandering through Kobe and Osaka (in Japan) a few years back.

I'm guessing I haven't lost out on any collector money by not keeping those particular toys from my childhood.

Eko Eko Azarak

Proof of just how far down the rabbit-hole I live:

I can't remember exactly when I first saw this series or even who got me on it.

Essentially it's based on some manga published in the 1970's. It's about a girl named Kuroi Misa (or Misa Kuroi if you use the English name order - translates roughly to "Black Mass").

In one iteration of the story, she's the daughter of a pair of witches/magicians/whatever. Her sister has vanished and her parents have been turned into wooden dolls. She winds up fighting malign eldritch forces while looking for her sister and a way to restore her parents.

In the movies her backstory is a bit different, but essentially she knows magic and fights bad guys using spells and a knife/athame thing. Most people around her tend to die messy deaths.

Her main operative magical phrase is: Eko eko azaraku... thus the title for the series.

There were a series of movies at first:

Eko Eko Azaraku: Wizard of Darkness
Eko Eko Azaraku II: Birth of the Wizard (a "prequel" to Wizard of Darkness)
Eko Eko Azaraku III: Misa the Dark Angel (essentially a long episode of the 1996-1997 TV series)

Somewhere around the third movie, there was a TV series. It had two seasons that were later released on DVD as "The Series" and "The Second".

There was a fourth movie that came out in 2001 called Eko Eko Azaraku IV: The Awakening. It had nothing to do with the prior movies or TV shows and was - frankly - pretty awful.

In 2004, the series was revived for television again as Eko Eko Azaraku: Manako (or "Eko Eko Azaraku: Eye") and was released on DVD for a time.

Recently, the series returned to theaters as two weird movies called Eko Eko Azaraku V: R-Page and Eko Eko Azaraku VI: B-Page. These also are on DVD.

There's an animated offering somewhere along there that's apparently done in the style of the manga.

So... details:

Wizard of Darkness is probably the best of the lot. It stars Yoshino Kimika as Kuroi Misa. As movies go, it's pretty over-the-top. There's gore, nudity, exploitative lesbian love scenes, Satanists, hokey effects, and a very high body count.

Birth of the Wizard has Ms. Yoshino reprising her role in a "prequel" to tell the story of how she gets her magic powers. The movie feels like a black magic take on The Terminator as a "good" witch-guy tries to save her from a body-snatching witch. No nudity or explotative love scenes in this one (that I recall). Same hokey effects. Lots of gore. Pretty high body count. Still a fun watch.

Misa the Dark Angel had Saeki Hinako take the reins as Misa. The film quality is less-good than the first two and the effects are much cheaper. There's a high body count and a fair amount of blood. No nudity. I'm unclear as to whether or not this movie came out before or after the TV series (also starring Ms. Saeki).

The 1996-1997 TV series had Saeki Hinako doing episodic battles vs. ghosts, monsters, witches, vampires, and what-have-you in a formula very similar to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". This was much darker, as Kuroi Misa could be pretty brutal. The TV series had a surprising amount of gore and flashes of nudity and kink that would never air in the U.S. The series also explored the backstory for Misa and pretty much ignored Birth of the Wizard to make Misa's parents established witches who fall to some kind of twisted priest-wizard-guy (later killed by Misa). Misa's sister is abducted by evil nuns who... who why give it away? It's not a happy show. Lots and lots of people die. Then again, it is horror...

The 2001 movie had nothing to do with any of the prior offerings. It had an amnesiac Misa the survivor of an attempted rape where everyone involved (her also-attacked friend and the rapists) were mysteriously killed. There's a lot of junk on making the sensationalistic media into the bad guy. It's not clear if Misa is even a witch until the end. The film quality and effects are better than Misa the Dark Angel, but the story is awful.

I watched Eko Eko Azaraku Manako without subtitles, so I'm a bit fuzzy on what's going on in this. The 1996-1997 TV series lacked subtitles as well, but the settings made it pretty clear what was going on. The Manako offering was a lot more dialog, so I got lost faster in the process. It seemed cheaper in production values, using digital video cameras to film what's going on and using bad computer-generated effects for the "magic". Essentially, it seems to have been set sometime after the prior TV series. Misa (played by Ueno Natsuhi) either died or something and wound up possessing a murdered girl. Somewhat amnesiac, she wanders the city and encounters ghosts and the like. A reporter or detective guy is investigating a series of deaths and weird crap and winds up on Misa's trail. Meanwhile, a bunch of schoolgirls are having weird crap happening to them while another witch is using her magic to become a popular TV idol. All of this apparently leads up to an attempt to open some gate to hell or something. This series is pretty slow. Minimal violence. No gore, etc.

The R-Page and B-Page movies are back-to-back stories in the same setting and with more-or-less the same actors but two different plots. Misa - now played by Konno Narumi - meanders into some town while tracking some weird happenings. In one movie she mixes it up with a scarred woman with magic and a grudge. In another there's some weird crap with a kid and... oh I dunno what's going on. When stuff happens, the effects are good. No gore, blood, etc. Little in the way of violence at all. Plays more like a mystery than anything. Kind of slow for my tastes.

I do actually own all of the above shows on DVD. The process of getting legal copies of some of them was... involved... and required me to make use of friends in Japan with access to their versions of eBay.

Now that is OCD. Just sayin'

Early End to the Week

It's my "Friday".

I do believe I will take time tomorrow to see Blood the Last Vampire sometime after class.

Assuming I make it to class.

I got in an interesting nerdiscussion over Blood. It was my friend's opinion that it's a cheap ripoff of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". He picked the wrong dork to argue with as I have a rather unhealthy knowledge of Japan's list of slayeresque flicks.

I called out the Eko Eko Azarak movies and proved that I am indeed the bigger movie nerd - at least in this narrow genre focus.

Maybe I should move to my parents' basement.

Oishii

Mmm... Bakesale Betty chicken sandwiches.

Yummy.

Food coma is the inevitable result, but there's worse fates I suppose.

Timing

If there's a constant I've found in my life, it's that my timing sucks.

I think that's probably why I'm OCD about being prepared for situations by having contingency plans. It's due to this timing flaw.

Case-in-point: yesterday I naively heeded the weather forecast and opted for shorts and a t-shirt as my attire for the day.

I barely saw the sun. Even when I rode home, it was pretty cool and quite breezy.

Today, I've worn jeans and got a slightly more suitable jacket. And is there fog? Nooooo... Are their clouds? Nooooo..... Will today be warmer? I'm pretty sure that's a yes.

I've also got a package being delivered to work. When is it coming? Friday. What day am I taking off this week?

*sigh*

Little things, but I have noticed my timing is pretty consistent that way.

Aura Massage

What's exciting:

Blood the Last Vampire opens Friday. If Buffy the Vampire Slayer were a Japanese schoolgirl (who just happens to also be a vampire... at least in the anime), then Blood would be her story.

Whee!

I'm also kind of excited about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, even though that was my least-favorite of the books. I'm hoping the movie has a bit less of the angsty bullshit. Oh, I think Rowling captured the whiny nature of a teenage boy brilliantly, but as someone who never outgrew his angsty teen years, I didn't feel I needed to see someone else's issues. It's a preference.

I've been told that there's a sister-bar to Bourbon & Branch called The Rickhouse.

New quality bars make me happy.

It also helps that I'm technically more than half-done with my work week. Sleeping in for three days will be nice.

---
I've got a game this weekend with my fellow nerds. I'm prepped for materials, but having a tough time getting psyched for it. All the background junk I have feels more crushing and overwhelming than fun and inspiring.

Yes, I'm whining about a role-playing game. Humor me.
---
I've decided to try to convert one of my co-workers to the Church of Gaiman. I'm going to start her on Good Omens and see how it goes. If she likes, I'm guessing her husband will also enjoy. That will potentially add two converts to the cause.

Before they know it they'll memorize NeverWhere and BART will never seem the same again. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Pushers

Push came out on DVD today.

Twenty bucks later and I've got my trash to watch for tonight.

I regret nothing.

Sun of Suns

I finished "Sun of Suns" by Karl Schroeder.

Utterly brilliant.

It's a unique mix of swashbuckling adventure and extremely esoteric science fiction with a world set in a giant... um... balloon in space. The balloon world of Virga is heated by a series of artificial suns and...

Well, it gets complicated. There's pirates. There's naval-ish battles. There's revenge. There's redemption. There's absolutely fascinating characters.

It's good clean fun.

And there's pirates.

Sith Stew

The bummer with the morning fog is that I can't see if the moon is still full. Doesn't really matter, I guess. There was enough of a breeze this morning that riding my bike took all of my attention.

Seems everyone in my office is an early bird today. Kind of disorienting.

And a nice, heavy parcel was sitting on my chair this morning. Ah groovy. Something to burden me even more on my bike ride home.

Yay.

That which does not kill me makes me stronger... or so the saying goes. I must be getting close to Batman strong now, I guess.

I've started watching the Seventh Doctor story for "Dr. Who" called "Battlefield". It's remarkably awful in terms of acting, plot, and FX, but it's got the Brigadier in it so I'm cool with it. Plus I've always found the McCoy Doctor to be pretty good. Towards the end he had this sinister, manipulative thing going on that was cool.

If I can't get a copy of Push this afternoon, then I'll go back to watching more "Earth 2".

I'm all about high cinema.

Summery

Got warm fast today.

I'm starting to believe the weather forecast claiming gradual warming this week.

Time to Howl

The gendarmes of law enforcement are making their presence known this fine morning.

Must be a full moon.

Yep. There it is. Right there on the horizon like Sauron's other eye.

Did it just wink?

What the hell did I add to my oatmeal this morning? I think it was cinnamon...

swirly...

To add to the weird, the veep of my division and one of the directors is in the office. Nobody comes in this early.

Nobody.

Okay, except me.

Creeeeeeepy.

Holidaze's End

It's been a nice three days. Very relaxing.

And I'd forgotten Tim Curry did a stint on "Earth 2" for a few eps. Nice. Always good to see the original Dr. Frank N. Furter doing the villain thing.

I've taken a break from "Earth 2" to watch "The Sontaran Experiment", a Tom Baker era "Dr. Who" story. Good corny fun there.

Another issue of Joss Whedon's "Season Eight" for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was out when I picked up comics today.

I'm wondering what I did to have everything go so nicely this weekend. You know you're paranoid when you find it hard to enjoy good times and keep waiting for the other shoe to fall.

Independence Day

Well that was great fun.

Today was one of those rare holidays when I had a vague plan and everything went far better than I expected.

Sometime around noon I eventually meandered into the City (for the uninformed, "the City" is what we in the Bay Area call San Francisco. I don't know why they get a capital 'C', but that's just how it is.).

I met up with Steve and his lovely girlfriend Lisa and we made our way to the Fillmore Jazz Festival where we ate, drank, listened to music, and generally enjoyed ourselves. I even bought a new hat. It looks rather hipster-ish but fits me and matches my attire. I was assured often throughout the day that the hat doesn't look bad.

But I digress.

So we met up with a couple of Lisa's friends later in the afternoon. I can't remember their names, but we hung out with them for a bit then went to grab some Thai food for dinner. Afterward, Steve, Lisa, and I considered our options:

- See fireworks at Crissy Field
- See fireworks at Pier 39
- Come up with a Plan C

That's when one of Lisa's friends invited us to a party in North Beach. So we went and did Plan C.

I'm not really much of a party person. I don't do small talk well in SF socialite crowds. I'm more into chatting up geeky stuff like "Firefly" or discussing the merits of applying Parkour to an urban area or talking about what I'd do with an invincible android army or crap like that.

In summary, I'm a big kid. I'm not really suited for "grown up" parties where folks are discussing opera, comparing wine vintages, raving about swing dancing studios, or whatever.

All the same, I enjoyed myself at this one. It was, as I've come to learn, a typical party for "my generation". Kind of glommed together at the last moment and an invite of any kind of urbanish professional within a decade of my age group for networking, matchmaking, etc.

The actual hostess was busy when we arrived, so the "co-hostess" settled us and the three of us wound up chatting most with her over the evening. That was fine with me. She was very attractive and quite an entertaining conversationalist. She and Lisa certainly got along well. Steve mingled better with others than I did, but that's not really news.

By the end of the evening, we were all added to some kind of email invite list for semi-monthly gatherings or whatever. Kind of nice. We'll see how this goes.

We all hoofed it up to Coit Tower and watched the fireworks finally. Nice show. At the end, the group was migrating on to another bar but I was tired, low on cash, and had enough booze. I wanted to face the hordes at BART and get home.

Oddly enough, there weren't hordes. Now I'll just have my sleep interrupted by fireworks all night long.

Hyper Productive Day

Yeah... not really.

I did accomplish an errand and go jogging, but otherwise I messed around on my computer or watched DVDs.

I finished "The Time Meddler" (a Willian Hartnell "Dr. Who" story) then started watching my "Earth 2" DVDs.

I'm impressed at how well "Earth 2" holds up. It's a bit hokey and preachy, but it's actually not that bad.

Yep. Nothing but high praise from me. Heh.

Aaaah...

Yeah. I could get used to leisurely days off.

I really could.

My heartfelt condolences to my friend E who is working hard today to help with a huge project due Monday. She deserves a massive raise.

And a comped day off.

And a pony.

I dunno if she'd want a pony, but she deserves one anyway. Just 'cause.

Halfway

So, per my previous math, we're now a few minutes beyond halfway through the year.

Ah, trivia...

Declarations of Interdependance

Ah, the Fourth of July weekend. Three days of sleeping in.

Well... two days. I suspect Sunday will be punctuated with illegal fireworks, but who knows?

I'm looking forward to Friday more than Saturday. I have Friday all to myself for slackerdom and I plan to take my slacking as far as I can slack.

I suspect my DVD player will get a lot of use when I finally stir from bed sometime around lunchtime.

I'm ambitious in my goals.

Current Events

The saying goes: "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Okay, I'm paraphrasing. I think that's how the saying goes, but I digress.

The news is just filled with fun stuff:

- Iran's election woes and demonstrations of not-so-gentle love for the opposition.

- North Korea and their missile fetish.

- California's utter meltdown (again) thanks to a lack of the government's ability to do a goddamn budget.

And what's the news headlines all about?

Michael Jackson.

That's right. The news is focusing the majority of their attention of a possibly-drug-related death of a celebrity with a laundry list of psychological issues longer than both my extended arms.

Way to deal with priorities, news folks! Let the guy's family deal with his death with some privacy. Give them a bit of dignity and move on to more important issues. Jeez...

Ah, California. Why does my home state have such problems? The Chronicle actually sums it up nicely. The problem isn't from any one cause (though the severely-polarized legislature and governorship isn't helping). This is all from years and years of legislation and policies that are not compatible.

And 'cause everyone can't play nice in the sandbox, the 8th largest economy in the world is taking the express route in the toilet circling.

Apparently the Governator's declaration of emergency means that after 45 days, the Legislature can't do anything but work on the budget.

Why wait 45 days? Seriously... these guys shouldn't get a dime of money, even per diem, for every day the budget is overdue. And that should apply to the Governator as well. His veto posturing isn't helping at all.

In other news, they're apparently going to remake "Alien Nation".

That bunker in Idaho is looking more attractive every day now...

Complications

Most martial arts are co-ed.

That's a fine thing. It's good to learn how to defend one's self, regardless of gender.

Further, I'm of the opinion that most martial arts really drive home how irrelevant gender is in a fight. Sure, men have better upper-body strength and are usually more used to roughhousing, but women have better endurance and usually have better balance (at least in my experience).

Most external (striking) styles, like karate, depend heavily on speed. All the power of strikes comes from the hips, so upper body strength counts for jack.

Thus, back when I took karate, I learned to have a healthy respect for any women I sparred.

I personally find it hard to have a female opponent in any kind of sparring exercise or indeed any exercise where there's a good risk of injury. Mainly that stems from how I was raised. The thought of striking or harming a woman is abhorrent and so I always find myself holding back. In sparring that's good for avoiding any injury but it also means I lost matches a lot.

[Edit] This doesn't mean I "went easy". I probably would have lost the matches anyway, but I do know I was reluctant to fully throw down. [/Edit]

Fast-forward a few years.

My current style has a lot of grappling moves in it as well as throws and the like. There's a lot of close-contact.

And the students are, for the most part, younger than me by a good amount (though there are several my age).

I'm going somewhere with this. Really.

So today, part of our exercises involved getting out of being grappled. It's a laudable goal and a good thing to know.

I found it hard to take my particular bit of this seriously given that my partner for this exercise was a very pretty young woman who was easily half my age and size. Seriously. I towered over her.

So for her, the exercise was probably a good thing. If she were attacked, odds are pretty good her opponent would be bigger than her, so I was probably a good match.

Her grappling me? Not so much of the threat. Very hard to take that seriously. Let's face it, most heterosexual guys would not try to get free if a pretty young woman grappled him.

Besides, she could barely get her arms around me for the grapple. Odds are I won't encounter that situation in a street fight. Heh.

Oh, the exercise was fun, but I'd be lying if I didn't feel a bit awkward during the whole thing.

Ah to be fifteen or so years younger...

Halfway point

Huh.

So... Erik, being a true scientist, points out that now I may say the year is half over.

Strictly-speaking, 181ish days have passed (today isn't over yet)

365/2 = 182.5

So I guess noon tomorrow would be the actual halfway point for the year.

If, you know, you wanted to be OCD.

I'm not a geolog...um... scientist, so I'm not that terribly focused on the numbers.

July

It's July already.

I'm trying to process why the last six months are a blur. It feels like it was December just yesterday.

Maybe I should change my meds...

Zepplin Band-Aid

Interesting article in the Atlantic. They discuss possible ways to counter global warming by using zepplins to turn the sky red.

Huh.

It's the little things

I now appreciate driving to work with a car that practically purrs. The lack of a cacophonic, migraine-inducing racket is a plus.

Ideally I'd like to squeeze a few more years out of my car. It's been a wonderful purchase and I'm quite attached to it.

After two trips inland this week, I'm really appreciating (even loving) the fog. It figures that they're forecasting fog for the 4th. That's just how we roll in the Bay Area. God forbid we could actually see fireworks. That's just such an alien concept.

Then again, you never know...

Apparently the Fillmore Jazz Festival is the same day. Should be a very interesting day. The operative phrase here will be: Sunblock and layers.