"...let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry. There is nothing ready made for him. He is forced to coin words himself, and, taking his pain in one hand, and a lump of pure sound in the other (as perhaps the people of Babel did in the beginning), so to crush them together that a brand new word in the end drops out." - Virginia Woolf, 'On Being Ill'

eva widermann - art

stealth tech - interesting article via Wyatt

The Art of Joe Chiodo - he did a great Freefall portrait once, for the two that'll get that reference

      I thought this article was great, because I'm a linguaphile, but it also reminded me of a martial arts thing (can one be a martial arts nerd?). In any case, it was a random connection that happened in my head while learning forms for our dojo's Okinawan karate; forms, at least on the English side of things (as opposed to Japanese kata), I thought, might be kind of like Plato's forms. That is, in the sense that they are an ideal to work towards; the trick is, the exact movements are almost never something that one would use in a practical sense, so to me that's like the ideal never quite showing up in our perception of the real world/real fight. We take what principles and ideas and sequencing we can from the forms, but we still have to live in the shadowplay real world. Maybe that's trite, but it's a work in progress, so neener.

From the aforementioned article, an interesting way of description, haven't quite figured it out yet: "...the higher, intuitive, self-knowing mind, which connects with consciousness; the lower-thinking, rational mind, which connects consciousness to the outer world via the senses; and the ego, which exists in a space between the higher and the lower mind."

Every movement a cut.

When we use the wooden swords,
sometimes I wonder if they are still alive
in some way. Does the heat of our hands
waken something in the dead material?
They dry, quiescent in their racks, freed
from any aroma of trees but still rich in red
brown golden color. But in our hands, they
sing as they part the air, and snarl in voices
of boughs breaking when they clash. Dead,
and alive.

But there should be no clash, he instructs.
It would ruin the edge. Every cut, every
thrust, every parry passing each other with a
whisper and a caress. In dilated time, the
dead wood becomes part of a living limb,
and strikes.

A stick in the shape of a sword has no real
edge, though. It is no razor, but a bludgeon.
Why not let it impact heavily,
use what weight it has? It is no blade.
Regardless, he says, slipping my parry and
placing the living wood, gently, against my
deadened throat -
Every movement a cut.

I'm all written out from my thesis at the moment. So:

SWE3 game trailer - interestingly, better I think than the one for the movie in some ways

my favorite is 'it has no idea i'm gay'

superbike concept - I can't decide whether that's ugly or oddly intriguing, or both

supposedly, it generates a Mondrian image for you, though I'm curious as to what the rules that govern it are

Sideways, with Paul Giamatti, Sandra Oh, Thomas Church, and Virginia Madsen. As much as I tried to watch this with an admonition in mind that a film can be good even if you find some of the characters reprehensible, Sideways didn't really make it easy on me. The acting was superb nonetheless, and there were hilarious moments and touching moments. But there was also a good deal of space that had me uncomfortable or annoyed, and having to figure out what purpose that served. I'm not sure I want to go by my first opinion of the movie, but I don't really want to watch it again, either.

Beyond embiggens and cromulent - why yes, I am a complete and total nerd, and yes, I do enjoy that sort of thing

random poetic phrases I've heard lately:
"Every movement a cut." (in reference to swordplay)
"He takes himself away to a place that is more inward than is safe to go."
"A bottle of wine is still alive."

      As much as people complain about the long wait times in Emergency Rooms, there is a good reason for it. In the triage area, there are usually two or three staff whose job it is to decide who goes into the ER when. The trick is, there is usually limited space in the ER, and potential patients might range from a total jerk who is complaining of phantom abdominal pain, to a woman who is humbly going into labor but not wanting to bother anyone (both of which actually happened on the same day). So the triage staff have to manage the amount of space in the ER and decide which of the people trying to self-diagnose themselves they should give a room to; basically, the people who rotate through that job hate it because of the stress involved.

Zen in the Art of Archery, by Eugen Herrigel. As much as I'd like to recommend this book to everyone and their mother, at the same time I can think of less than a handful of people who might enjoy or appreciate it. Not for any pretentious reasons on my part, I hope, but because the subject matter - while in its simplest sense, is archery - is so esoteric. To paraphrase Herrigel, he is attempting to write about something that can't be communicated through text, so the best he can do is relate his experience and describe it. I thought it tangentially interesting that while the three primary arts discussed in conjunction with zen are archery, swordsmanship, and flower arranging, jujitsu was mentioned as a secondary aspect of zen - because of its similararity to sword-play in involving an opponent, but difference in that blending is the primary and necessary tactic.

I don't like it yet, and feel it needs to be changed and added to; bleh. Thoughts?

Ink

So this is what permanence feels like -
to outline the image in my skin,
it seems a scalpel must be drawn,
slowly, across my flesh.

Will this really last forever?

I ask myself as the bone
in my shoulder shudders
under the jackhammer rhythm of the needle.

Now a hook, tugging
at the nerves in my spine;
it seems a wonder
that I won't be able to feel

the ink. Something feels cool
and wet where the scribbling
of a dull razor isn't; blood,
blue dye, I'm not sure.

I roll my shoulders when he's done,
a sunburn of color across my back.

Basic Judaism, by Milton Steinberg. I read this because I've been curious about Judaism for a long time and never really been able to get straight answers about it, but this book definitely satisfied. The style is dry enough that I had to read it more slowly than I'm used to, but the information is simple and well-organized, so all in all it was pleasant enough to read.

Striking + Takedowns + Groundwork - I'm not really a fan of this website, but at least in this article they provide a really simplified summary of what goes into MMA training, with some nice examples of application on the bottom. The one bit I think they should have added one more bullet with is the 'Standing Grappling' section, which focuses entirely on Western wrestling takedowns, and ignores any of the aspects of upper-body work and unbalancing found in that same Western wrestling, Muay Thai, and Japanese wrestling. Oh, and dude in white, yeah your knee strike looks all pretty with your toes pointed, but seriously man, there is potential for pain on your part. Yes I know he can't hear me shut up.

"complete and total burnination" - we discovered a box of fireworks in cleaning the garage, but will perhaps have to experiment with a cholla

Storm Corps - yes, there seems to be something off about the art (which admittedly grew on me over time), but the premise is...interesting, the extended setting is very nicely put together, and later on in the story there are hints of what might be a really interesting riff, not sure how to describe it

      Periodic eastside KoSho news happy fun time: we still have lots of extra kicking and striking pads to sell for anyone interested, and even some Very Large Mirrors. I'm working on some paralette bars to add to the gym at the back, and we finally (thanks to Wyatt and my dad) have a decent training pistol to practice CDT take-away's with. Our burdgeoning MMA program is still, well, burdgeoning, but hey - that's why we're the eastside pizza delivery people/enlisted Marine or AF or soldier/night-shift cop dojo where we can barely get any schedule settled. But hey, relatively near 24/7 variable amounts of martial arts is a good thing. Yes.
      As for our aiki-jujitsu class the new drills of the day are the Ball Drills (for lack of inventive names as of yet). One involves tossing a medicine ball in any way at all, so long as the catcher blends with the momentum of the ball and uses its energy to keep it going to the next person. Or falls over in doing so and takes a medicine ball in the face. The other involves a marshmallow ball being whipped around the mats, and various airborne or possibly faceplanting on a failed attempt rolls that work on catching or picking up said ball, blending with said ball, and blending with the ground. These drills walk that razor line between genius and stupidity that makes class that much funner.

      Tangentially, I ran into an odd dynamic during kickboxing; the person that walked in the door turned out to be the popular, attractive senior I had sat next to as a geeky freshman in band. She was now fleshier, had a sorority girl tattoo, and didn't know a thing about martial arts, so now all of a sudden (in terms of knowledge/position, I mean) there was almost a reversal from the last time we'd seen each other way back in in high school. Awk-ward, and i'm still not sure why.

Macaulay's "Minute on Indian Education" - okay so I'm just using it for a footnote in my thesis, but it's pretty interesting to even just skim through in terms of historical perspective

henna - Anybody up for it? The last I got at the street fair wasn't worth saving from the quick erasing-by-hospital-soap

Coin Manipulation - Hoo boy...this was probably the worst thing I could look up while doing homework (re: X's scolding), but I'm rationalizing it by claiming that the 'balance toss' is perfect for practicing multiple [Western boxing] jabs (coming soon to a dojo near you)

      An ad hoc analogy for the development of physical intelligence, by Kevin and I...Kevin and me? Stupid grammar. Anyway, we likened the the increased connection between mind and body to evolution of the telephone. A little kid trying to tell his limbs to do something and then having something else entirely happen might be like the oldest-school phones where you didn't dial, but had an operator connect you. Moving up through various degrees, such as rotary phone and speed-dial, the other end of the spectrum would be the Zen end, as it were; the connection is already made practically before the thought happens.

Why is it that the only word Xuemei and I could think of for the male equivalent of "mistress" is lover? Or rather, aren't the connotations of each interesting when compared to each other?

Admiral, I shrunk the spy plane - periodic fun robot link (via Wyatt)

Really dumbed down folklore story of Chang E, the Moon Lady (because Xuemei was confused when I was trying to remember the old yarn about fae on the moon/the moon as Arcadia)

Ultimate Fighter - just a plug for what I originally thought was just another inane reality show but seems to have improved massively since it started, at least judging by the last couple episodes I randomly caught

Fire Warrior, by Simon Spurrier. Much to my dismay, I couldn't put this book down long enough to get any work done on my thesis, so hopefully my advisor will take a good book as an excuse. Yes, it's skiffy fluff, but it's good skiffy fluff, with the solid combination of a fast-moving adventure story, empathy-inducing characters, and cinematographic action. The climax is great, but the resolution after that is a bit of a letdown, though I suppose it is logical enough. There's some layers worth of social commentary in there as well, if I'm not mistaken, though I'm not exactly sure which way they were leaning, I need somebody else to read it to talk about it with.

World City Inventory

Britain for Americans - so much sarcasm...

the Falkirk Wheel - I have no idea; but it sure seems interesting

Sin City, with a helluva lot of good actors. Really...unique. The style was impeccable and true to the three graphic novels the three different stories in the movie are based on, though there were a few points where the actors seemed to be trying a bit too hard to imitate old-school noir. The distinct stories were interesting in that it seems like the movie ends three times over, which is apparently doubly trippy if you don't know it's going to happen beforehand. The subject matter and gore is definitely not for the faint of heart (or stomach), even in its stylized way, and while the nudity or near-thereof is certainly pleasant on a shallow level, the movie as a whole is demeaning to women. So...it was certainly interesting.

Thing With Feathers - art

Hm...Apu is the only one that stays the same...

Apparently, I am not the only one to have been charmed by the squishy intrigue that is the cephalopod -
-Hold the Kalamari - arguments both ways on intelligence, and "Researchers have discovered spines lodged in octopus brains, the result of a meal going the wrong way." I think it's kind of interesting that if you eat pretty much any part of a cephalopod, in a sense you're probably eating part of its brain.
-Cephalopod Research - general information and a few interesting videos from Down Under
-For some reason this reminds me of a zombie movie...with zombie coconuts. And seaweed. They really should have used the seaweed version for an underwater scene in an old Godzilla movie, in my opinion.

It's a good thing all my spare change is stuck in the giant pink fuzzy Buddha

Best. Hypothetical. Question. Ever.

-her name isn't really Jessica, but with that new required privacy stuff I got irrationally paranoid...and yes, it's kind of corny, but, uh.....deal. Or offer suggestions otherwise-

Jessica

The next time you find yourself
alone,
slouched on the couch in the dark,

wait.

Keep your hands still,
away from the tepid water
and the acrid pills.

Ignore the goblin-shrieks
of your flower-named sister,
and her rancid eyes,

Stand up and walk past
the tantrums of your mother
before she peels free of the TV,

Slip past your father,
duck his lecherous sneer
when he turns to cough up tar,

then run -

sprint through the sun -

soak up the warmth outside

that dank web of dark emotion,

let your words blossom

and grow.

Keep writing, Jessica.

      An entirely random martial arts technique just for fun and advertising. Or something. The curving knee, for lack of a better term, is one of those counter-intuitive movements that - unlike most counter-intuitive movements - is actually quite simple. While a good forward/upward thrust or angled thrust to the torso is powerful, and Okinawan knee strikes to the thighs are kind of bitchy, a curving knee is sneaky. If one is clinched with the opponent, and said opponent is slightly to one side or trying to reap you by stepping past, the curving knee strike can arc up and inward, striking with the inside of the knee or thigh. Like a boxing hook, at first it feels like no power can be generated, but with a proper twist of the waist a surprisingly satisfying thump can be had.

if light could be tasty, this would be it; but where has it gone? I would demand it as the secret ingredient in Iron Chef immediately

more fishy fun; that is one thing I have never seen in sushi, swim bladders

Spitwad Sutras, by Robert Inchausti. This book inspired me to be a teacher a long time ago, but upon a recent reading it mostly inspired bitterness in me. In truth, that bitterness is actually a reaction purely from within me, as I can honestly say that the amount to be learned in this book is immense. For teachers or otherwise, the thoughts regarding language and social interaction are valuable in practical, every-day situations. The style of the prose is very down to earth and easy to read, and in the back are sections of interesting maxims and aphorisms, and a wonderfully detailed list of suggested readings.

We used to do this at the diner when it was slow between breakfast and lunch, but with less aesthetic effort and more flavored syrups and stomach aches

sparth : construct - art

article on grip strengthening, which is especially useful to anyone who has come out of a grappling round unable to close their hands properly

headaches, so I've just been copying down stuff lately; more from Spitwad Sutras -
      "He claimed that technology has cut us off from experience. Geometry once linked numbers to shapes. Algebra was a move into abstraction. Calculus abstracted the abstractions. Until now we think in the abbreviated language of technological mnemonics, ICBMs and EIRs. The psychological effect of this move into abstraction has been profound, leading us to seek the displaced concrete in a variety of substitute realities - television, fantasy, magic, and psychosis. What's left of reality now resides in what people call 'bullshit,' dreams, small talk, side issues, private perceptions - literature."

      "The left side of the class decided to create the Octopian Civilization, an undersea world populated in the year A.D. 3333 by a crashed spaceship from the planet Hardon.
      The right side of the class was going to create the Artesian Civilization, a primitive, ethnically mixed culuture located near San Jose in the year 1000 B.C. The inhabitants of this lost civilization wore disco clothes, rode in vehicles resembling '57 Chevys, and were destroyed in the year 700 B.C., when a race riot at a local dance set off an underground neutron bomb placed there by a group of time-traveling Ku Klux Klan members from Turlock, California.
      It became clear to me that my students saw their world surrealistically. Civilization to them was a hodgepodge of images and entertainments arbitrarily organized around the most fantastic premises....This project was teaching them a lot about the way my students sorted through culture. What they noticed, what they neglected. How they saw parts but missed the whole. How their lives were littered with cultural fragments and semiotic smudges that have value primarily as consumer items and status symbols. It was as if they saw every instant as a cinematic moment; every fact, a quiz show answer; and every past deed, an old movie."
--------
"...the impious man is not he who denies the gods of the many, but he who attaches to the gods the beliefs of the many." - Epicurus, Death Is Nothing to Us

"Where is that leaf?"
"On the tree."
"Wrong - look again."
"Okay, it's on the end of that Y-shaped branch."
"Wrong again. It's in the air." And holding up his two fingers as if he were holding a grape floating in space, he enacted tha miraculous feat that leaves are literally suspended in midair. "And that's where ideas come from," he said. "They are in the air. Of course, when you write, you organize your papers the way God organizes a tree - you attach the idea to a branch of thought, and that branch adheres to the more solid trunk or discipline, which is rooted in the earth of our shared experience. That's what writing is all about: linking the miraculous perception to the material universe." - from Spitwad Sutras

Alien Apocalypse, with Bruce Campbell and Renee O'Connor. The only rational explanation I can think of for us watching this is the entirely depressing end to the UA game. It at least had the legendary Campbell, and O'Connor is oddly familiar (ah, she played Gabrielle in Xena). The only explanation we could think of for the pathetic mess this movie made of itself was that it was being conscious of messing itself. Like a drunkenly incoherent combination of The Postman, Planet of the Apes, and Battlefield Earth, possibly made by SciFi just for drinking games. Or something.

      I recently read an interesting argument for bodyweight exercise (which I am a proponent of) over weight training. Basically, it said that in weight training some portion of one's attention is concentrated on something external - i.e. the weight. But with bodyweight exercise one's full attention can be concentrated internally, on the self. I would add that a similar benefit is found in yoga (when are weights used in yoga?), but qualify that weights have their own purpose and advantages, such as speedy gaining of large amounts of muscle mass for one, but also disadvantages to health and otherwise. But I could go on. In other news, J.J. Abrams is probably going to direct Mission Impossible III, which will also have Carrie-Ann Moss in it, both things generally labeled as awesome.

Modern Art - I don't really understand it at the moment, but maybe the DC trip will make the difference in that regard...but on the other hand maybe modern art is there just so people can pull off stuff like that

Xtreme Martial Arts - frankly, I think it would be immensely better if it was less Wushu or even if they acknowledged how extremely stylized it is, but it's really pretty, so they've got something going I suppose

ilani ilani - cute language blog (" Putting the 'sin' back in syntax and the 'ho' back in phonology")