(interesting quotes)
"The arrogant are, in part, created by the meek." - Frank Herbert

"I remain a human being - but above us is a group consciousness as far beyond my grasp as my consciouness is beyond one of the muscle cells in my biceps." - Isaac Asimov (well that one's thought provoking anyway)

Weird Food from around the world; haven't looked through all of it, but one of my roommates has definitely eaten fried crickets and tarantula (kind of a nice travel guide as well)

Aktfotók a netrõl - no, I don't have the slightest idea what that means, whatsoever. Cool pictures though...

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story - Yeaahhh....um...hm. Well...yes? No? Not sure. Kind of....but...no...but maybe....hrmm....in any case, the ending for Vince Vaughn's character was randomly sexy. Yup.

Something interesting I read: the Arabic language has almost no etymological dictionaries. The theory is that because the language used in the Qur'an is considered to be a sort of "high" or "perfect" language (ie my mom pointing out that in 'perfect' Arabic the word for 'small' begins with an unvoiced 's,' but in Palestinian Arabic it starts with a voiced 'z') there is little reason to investigate its Semitic origins. I think this is kind of sad, because not only are the links with the ancient "vowel-less" languages not really known (even though it's still apparent in Arabic writing), but the formation of the tree-style word formation is also not as well studied. (that style being that say there is a word with three consonants in it, like k-t-b, all the words with those consonants in that order are similar in meaning, like book-bookshop-writing-writer &c)

Pleasure - photo essay ("Hear Me Roar" is totally hot)

the ending is the trippiest part

An odd-ish thing I've noticed in working at UMC has to do with Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. Basically, it's more a distinction that I've heard the Mexican-Americans make themselves, in that the ones I've met want to distinguish themselves from, say, illegal aliens. I think there's some bitterness involved because either they or their parents worked to get citizenship and thus they consider themselves Americans, but the illegal Mexicans just relatively show up and hang out and have a kind of indeterminate nationality. Interestingly I've also heard some Mexican-Americans decry things such as bilingual language proposals, because for example in their experience it was much better to learn English by immersion (whereas to them the illegal Mexicans not only don't bother to learn English but are almost against it as well).

There was a guy in my fiction writing class who did this, which accented his sardonic comments (Brad Fest for those from CFHS)

Eddie the Artist - if all girls looked this way in real life, I'd explode.

cool lineart

   I've had the same penpal for about five years now. She lives in northern Italy and her name is Cinzia. We don't really know that much about each other, beyond silly stuff about school and tests, and vague bits about each other's love life, some local happenings, &c. But even though I know very little about her, I think in a sense I do know the important things. And facetiously, I get a random picture of an Italian cutie every once in a while and notes like, "I'm a good cook above all cook pasta and sauces; when you'll came here I'll cook for you a big dish of pasta...do you like pasta?!??? Because you'll cannot refuse!." That fucking rules.
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   In reading articles for my thesis I had a kind of creepy/whoa moment. Without superfluous details, I had been writing a cornball story basically for my own pleasure, with some random ideas thrown in as main foundation points. In reading an article about ecological factors in Dune, there was a discussion about how basically one of the random ideas I had fit right under one of the main ecological trends in recent times. So without reading any of the books that supposedly fit into the trend, in an odd sort of way I felt that not only was I swept up in something without realizing it, but also part of something a bit out of my comprehension because it just seemed like so big of an idea and here I was dicking around and bungling into it with my little schpiel.
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kewl word of the day - lynxcalm, as in this line from an alt-history story, "Ah, playing the lynxcalm soldier of fortune as usual..."

more art - Philip Straub

poor little cylinder thing 'sploded

In Tomiki Aikido there is a set of techniques called the 'seventeen.' There are few things that are interesting about this set. It is one of the more advanced sets next to the 'koryu' (or as we call it, 'old school') sets. Basically, along with the koryu it forms the real core of the Tomiki style; in the koryu, fighting from kneeling and links between aikido and jujitsu are covered. In the seventeen are the main techniques that deal with dynamic motion and strikes. They are fast, smooth by necessity, and are often easily made into striking combinations themselves. Interestingly, however, is the necessity of ingraining the 'fifteen' (a more basic set) before digging into the seventeen. Without the muscle memory created by repetition of the done-from-static fifteen, the seventeen are unnecessarily difficult to learn and understand. The trouble with this is that the fifteen often seem boring because of their static nature, and their use sometimes incomprehensible compared to the immediately apparent application of the seventeen. But the value of a thorough understanding of those basic principles becomes immediately apparent when the student who paid attention smiles after gracefully clotheslining someone, and the inattentive student throws himself.

Pene Menn - nice concept art

Interesting point about language differences - cooking verbs

The Eclectic Cafe is a nice little restaurant at the corner of Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon, although it is a bit expensive. All in all, however, the extra cost is mitigated by the large portions . The decor is quiet, warm, and slightly eclectic with art deco lamps mixed with landscape paintings. I had a corned beef sandwich with swiss with a very, very hot mustard, and a green salad which was an unusual mix of sprouts, spinach, mushrooms for the most part. The mustard and corned beef complemented each other perfectly, and the salad was interesting if odd. My date had an avocado, bean, and green chili burro which came with a large mix of lettuce and tomatoes on the side, and salsa in a funky little glass pouring thing. The presentation actually extended inside the burro as when it was cut we found it to be prettily layered. The menu is a mix of Mexican and American meals, with several specialties such as salads and quiches.

"If you read a lot, you're considered well-read. But if you watch a lot of TV, you're not considered well-viewed."

Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson was an enjoyable read, for the most part. Although Gibson went a little bit overboard in terms of arabesque'd language in the beginning, once he settled down his style was kind of a concise lyricism with some grit added in for effect. The plot style is made up of concurrent threads that progressively connect, which adds a certain mysterious element, but unfortunately in order to tie them all together the ending turns into something like an impressionist painting seen from way too close. Basically, Mona Lisa Overdrive is a noir-ish cyberpunk novel with a writing style that's definitely pleasurable to soak in, though the ending may take some re-reading. As a sidenote, there are a few concepts and even phrases that seriously make me wonder if the writers of The Matrix and Shadowrun had this as a source, especially concerning the apparent popularity of the author at the time he wrote it.

Two things learned at the dojo: one, that the focus of male students of high school age deteriorates significantly upon the arrival of slutty high school girls in sorority girl skirts. Even snapping fingers in front of their faces doesn't help very much. And two, never ever imitate the kickboxing instructor who also happens to be a dancer. Her "squats" are actually grand plies in ballet second position. Ow ow, ow, and ow.

And after working in an old folks home (aka 'assisted living') I've learned that underneath the potpourri-masked demeanor, there is something kind of grotesque at work. I don't know if it was the short-person-turning-to-reveal-twisted-hump, the rheumy eye peering from a cracked doorway until I passed, the wrinkled skin frozen into a teeth-baring rictus, or the wheelchair-pushed-away-from-table-to-reveal-grossly-distended-belly. Unrelatedly, having the exact same conversation repeated over and over is kind of boring in one sense, but I suppose it does provide the opportunity to think of a variety of answers and test reactions. In any case, I think I might welcome going back to drugs and violence at UMC.

tokyo plastic - look for 'drummachine,' get ready to kick it surreal style, and get creeped out a little

Random gadget under development, via Wyatt at the Naval Academy: shoulder-mounted submachineguns. The prototype he saw involved a shoulder rig, helmet, and paintball gun, and basically acts like the turret on an Apache helicopter, ie, look + aim. As a sidenote, in training for beach-taking, robot paintball tanks are used against the undergrads.

Ladino - funny name for a language, but interesting background

Digi-cammies - I dunno, it doesn't look that special, but the Marine at the dojo claims it'll perfectly hide someone not that many yards away

School of Rock got off to a pretty iffy start, but slowly picked up some rockin' steam as the story progressed. I think this is either an alright movie, or a great kid's movie, to be short. Plus, Jack Black and Joan Cusack are in it, which generally makes anything better.

Random Trader Joe's items that have been good to me lately:
Mango Mochi - chewy on the outside, ice cream on the inside. Perfect ::awlp:: material
Marinated Mushrooms - once the snacking is started, hard to stop
Prosciutto/Mozzarella/Basil roll - sandwich in one easy step (with some mustard, natch)
Portabello and/or Roasted Veggie + tofu ravioli - kinda like a snack, kinda like a meal

+-Evil - mostly Image style comic art

+-simplified footwork diagrams

Two observations about living with those of the feminine persuasion-
The odd hair scattered hither and thither is initially charming, but with two or three women in the house at any given time the hairballs can be followed like tumbleweeds in their langorous migration from the living room to the bedrooms and back. And the tub is not supposed to fill up while taking a shower, I mean, come on now people.
But: it is gently pleasant to hear a girl unconsciously sing somewhere in the house.

Cute cartoon, if eerie...

musicplasma - it's so pretty, and amusingly useful

Random kewl thing about Arabic: the young African gentleman who watched me write out the same words over and over for a few hours in the middle of the ER (not really relevant, but a fun place to practice) pointed out that Arabic script is often more like drawing than Romanized lettering. I hadn't thought about it that way, but most Muslim art really is centered around really arabesque'd writing when not geometric designs, and while it isn't image-based like Asian characters, even texts on it suggest certain flairs.

kewl word of the day: aporia, "the 'impasse' of an undecidable oscillation, as when the chicken depends upon the egg but the egg depends upon the chicken"

"And I say: 'Look! I have no hands!' But the people all around me say, 'What are hands?'"

"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things, but one who gets the people to do the greatest things." - Ronald Reagan

The Hunted was simple, intense movie. The Kali-based fight scenes were exquisite, and even beared watching back and forth in slow motion, and the reliance on body language in the acting was great. I know there was debate over the realism of the final fight, but in the documentary on how they used Kali in the choreography that's pretty well explained.

Okay, so here's why I don't like Vin Diesel. At first I just kind of passed off my aversion to him as jealousy of the machismo variety as fems around me swooned, but something else was bugging me. That is, that the characters that he plays are a) a false sort of anti-hero (ie, a popularized kind that isn't a true anti-hero but only labeled as such because he's a "bad guy doing good things") and b) don't have a real flaw or internal struggle to give them any depth. What I mean by that is the flaw they have is either that (to reiterate) they're "bad guys doing good things" or they're kind of dumb. As a counter-example, the Rock (who is much more charismatic, I might add, and better trained to boot) played a character in The Rundown who carried the weight of some apparently incredibly painful experience with him, which is never explicitly defined, and yet it still managed to play a significant role in the story.

And to weigh in on The Prisoner of Azkaban, it had very shiny special effects. It gets a cookie. Oh, and I think they snuck in a painting of Cthulu during one of the moving stairway shots.

So the patient I had at the hospital randomly gets 10 points - he made the remarkably astute observation that the uber-haze that blanketed the city today was a unique mist-dust made up of well, mist and dust, which we later confirmed by the news on two different channels. In any case, the haze also reminded me of something that I've heard ascribed to Southwest weather but hadn't noticed till now: the eyeblink nature of changes in the sky here. The other week I was with the kickboxing instructors outside the dojo watching the most smolderingly gorgeous sunset complete with an iridescent blue rupture right above the sun, and in the space of us turning to each other to talk and turning back that entire half of the sky which had been consuming itself in light was liquid indigo and red. Today wasn't quite as colorful, but I was still startled when for one moment I couldn't see more than a couple blocks away from the hospital from the bloody seventh floor, finished a couple pages of my book, then looked up again to find mountains looming out of nowhere. Whoa.

The Day After Tomorrow was a pretty fun romp, all told. I mean, it was total fluff, but there was something really fun about seeing big special effects on a big screen. Also, the whole supercell idea was interesting, in that halfway through the movie I remembered that they actually do take place after a fashion underwater (thank you Starfish and Scientific American), so basically I thought the transplanted concept was cool. Moreover, I think the setting at the very end of the movie would be wonderful for totally unrelated stories, novels, games, &c. And tangentially, the main (young) character was basically like my brother, except perhaps less badass, and the chick was cute.

Dragon Skin - I'm still banking on the concept of using the same materials, but in a similar style to old school Roman armor, though - ie, overlapping strips so there would be more mobility, more breathing, and if it was damaged only one or two strips would have to be replaced rather than the whole unit of armor.

Navy Gadgets

"We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins...The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is. Why, you're ashamed to buy my book, ashamed to read it: the only thing you're not ashamed of is to judge me for it without having read it..." - George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
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Bloodlines - finally, a game that might actually use some of the potential of White Wolf Publishing's World of Darkness. They've tried it before, but this is the first that hints that it might use every last aspect of the romantically dark urban fantasy they've created.
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"That's the devilish side of a woman's fascination: she makes you will your own destruction."

Running off a conversation I had with my dad while fishing, I wandered around the OED for a while. Apparently, a great deal of tree names (oak, elm, aspen, &c) come straight from Old English. Names of gems (emerald, ruby, sapphire), on the other hand, all come from French. But color names were all over the board; it was kind of like they were all similar in all sorts of different languages, and thus relative to the other two groups they seemed to have almost no particular origin. And on a random note, according to the OED the word "crayfish" comes in a roundabout way from the word "crevasse" in an odd sort of bastardization, and they don't have the word "fuschia."

not exactly martial arts - but I think it would be cool if someone founded a 'fist of the west side' style