new week

I can't figure out what the building, just south of the convention center, used to be (that the union offices are in). It looks like it might have been a kind of townhouse complex, in some areas, but in other areas has odd long hallways and oddly placed bathrooms...and the best/weirdest part are the tiny internal courtyards, some just empty concrete, some with bricks and pyrocantha, open to the sky. It's a puzzle.

A statement I typed in made a good point - the employee had worked with the state for 17 years, and noted, she's seen things come and go. The union has a lot of enthusiasm, sure, but in terms of years, it'll be interesting to see what happens in the long run.

And there are competing unions? Not only are they all clandestine-seeming (using words like "infiltrate" when talking about soliciting for new members), but they're competing for support by approaching people's houses or hanging out in parking lots? Like Jehovah's Witnesses, but for career and employment...

end of the first week

In no particular rhyme or reason -
Some guy had a last name of Gandolph. Another, Pinkstaff.

An amusing statement I typed up: "Husband answered door - very anti-union; wouldn't go get wife, says she's 'tied up at the moment.' Literally?" I couldn't tell if the organizer was joking, or actually suspected some BDSM.
----also: "Still dead - please remove from system"

We got to work with a somewhat strident video conference going on directly behind us...there was a definite feeling of, don't do anything dumb, don't do anything dumb, don't turn around and look at the camera. Interesting to see a place that uses video conferences so much, and in different rooms concurrently, even.

There was an email that started with, "fleshdryver@..." Yikes.

Cool names: Danisha, Amandalyn (sounds like an instrument to me)

I'm not sure how I feel about the union getting people who pay dues to do some of their organizing work for them, however pyramid-scheme effective it is.

Filters are awesome for managing lots of raw data. Like, wow, I heart you, filters.

One of my co-workers often leans close, touching shoulder to shoulder or the like; I think it's just purely unconscious, but I don't mind at all, she wears soft sweaters and smells nice. Also, an impressive assortment of pirate-jewelry, all with massive beads.

union thoughts, II

I can see the wages of all these random state employee people. There's nary a low wage, either, at least by any standards of most people I know. Not sure how I feel about that...though it is educating, in a way.

It's kind of nice to work as part of a team after several very solitary jobs; I was always kind of a liaison or had to use connections, but it's been a long time since I've worked in a small room on the same project with other people pulling their weight. Hence, my wanting to work in an ambulance, in part, I suppose.

first union thoughts

Learn some more English, people. I can understand a little Spanish, but I also feel like the proverbial monkeywrench in the language gears....and I'm not even sure if that was just a pun in that.

With uncanny resemblances to Elizabeth Pena and Judy Reyes, the people in my immediate area are creeping me out. It's like a kind of cognitive dissonance, I expect different voices to come out of their mouths.

I dunno...so far, the intentions of the union people seem nice, but I can't hold with the kind of groupthink necessary for a union to function well, you can tell from statements you input that lots of people are put off by them, or are being pressured to join or come to meetings or work in a kind of pyramid-scheme sense. Good intentions, but the things necessary for it to work....not so great.

seriously, imagine Walken saying, "needs more anal probing"

Circus of the Damned, by Laurell Hamilton. Woo! Exciting. Anita Blake is my heroine. Kind of the silly-tshirt wearing of Gaby McAslan with the badassery of Buffy, but with the hardness of Cassie Suthorn. Though I agree about the Richard love interest, now, I get how she’s taken in by chemistry and attraction, but ditch him, Anita! I’m curious where Hamilton is going to go with the rookie animator/executioner – will he become badass, or die horribly? Lots of the usual twists and turns and original creatures and Blake’s calm tenaciousness, and the kind of ending where you go, how the hell could this possibly be resolved in anything but a horrible manner? And then it is resolved, in a way that’s horrible but still good. I did feel a bit jipped that some of the weight of that ending felt stolen, since it was exactly the same last trick as in the previous novel in the series, just much more bloody and violent. Oh, and Edward is interesting as a total sociopath interacting with relatively normal characters, it’s fascinating each time. And will she encounter the crazy-horny-scary lamia anymore? Probably so, as it was hired by Jean-Claude. If I didn’t have other novels I’m obligated to read first, I’d definitely go get the next book.

Communion, with Christopher Walken, and anal probing. Actually, I was disappointed there wasn't more anal probing. I can see how the film might be iconic in some ways (though it could have been iconic in different ways with more anal probing), and I can definitely tell how it’s autobiographical. You can see how the movie is mirroring scenes someone wrote about themselves. And in that, alas, I think it just gets self-indulgent; it doesn’t help that for much of the narrative the main character is something of a dick, and there’s less narrative, in truth, then a loose string of related experiences without an arc driving them. I think it would have been served, especially with the wonky special effects (though, points for attempting to use an alien blowup doll of sorts, I wonder if one could auction that off for fetish purposes), by limiting any need for special effects by doing it in an Asian horror movie style – less show and tell, more psychological tension and hinting. That also would have helped to take the movie from just randomly purposed and timed alien encounters, in that, in that horror style the purpose (which, granted, of the aliens is unknown) is less important than them just being creepy.


Olympic cheerleaders are so weird.

Drillbit Taylor, with Owen Wilson and two kids who are like the opposite of the evil twins of the kids from Superbad. The good twins? In a sense this movie is kind of the opposite of Superbad – first day of high school rather than last, nice kids versus jerks. Then there’s the adult aspect of the movie, with Wilson…not sure what to say about that. It’s basically Wilson’s trademark humor, which is fine – not amazing, not boring. I got kind of sick of the humiliation humor, that doesn’t really do it for me. And it just seemed long, for a comedy. But it was sweet. Not the greatest movie ever, but eh, fine.

more human than human?

Schismatrix, by Bruce Sterling. In a sentence, I think it’s like the Lord of the Rings for posthuman narratives, in the sense of, it was the original gangsta progenitor for those themes. Deus Ex, the Rifter trilogy and Blindsight, Dresden Codak, I would suspect sprang one way or another from seeds from Sterling’s writing. Using a singular character in a population spanning the solar system, he runs through a gamut of identities that includes too many variations of what humanity-could-become to count, and moreover the permutations and evolutions of those across literal centuries. Not quite a character study, but not just world-building-with-a-narrator, either...I’d go so far as to say it takes the posthuman theme and applies it to itself, making a, say, post-character study? Heh, ok, the label doesn’t work, but one gets the idea, I hope. Aesthetically, it probably is a bit too meandering and almost directionless-seeming at many points for most casual scifi readers, but a cyberpunk or hard science fiction fan will appreciate it, I think.

a matter of perspective

Jacob's Ladder, with Tim Robbins and Elizabeth Pena. Would have helped if I'd known what Jacob's Ladder is, durr, though it also might've stripped the ending of a lot of weight, and maybe even given away the whole movie. There seemed to be a certain skill of the creators of skimming in downright disturbing demonic imagery into seemingly normal environments, but it never really got look-away horrifying...more grotesquely fascinating, eerie, even downright disturbingly erotic at one point. I think part of it was the mystery and paranoia pervading the movie, it left me always looking for the key, the hint to understanding what was real and what was not, who was demon or angel or human. I really want to talk about the ending, heh, which was basically the only way you could pull off...bah, but I don't want to give anything away. Ask if you're curious and not worried about seeing the movie.

I so want one...mmm....bacon

systema notes - rained out

-yeah, lightning directly overhead a park filled with tall trees was probably a good marker for having booked it when we did, not to mention the deluge that followed immediately thereafter
-I still don't really get the, punch to stop them from sitting up thing...I get the basic idea of relaxing working muscles, but the how of it entirely escapes me
-also, going "deeper" with a punch without making it "sharper", but it's not a push either....argh.
-getting better with the fist-pushups, at least, finally learned how to distribute my weight across my knuckles so I didn't bruise this time
-nipples.
-when absorbing, you don't do "heroic" movements and try to twist out of the way, there's a trick of returning to equilibrium, as overcompensating in rolling or twisting with something will just put you in a vulnerable position
-I didn't get the limbo-roll-under-stick drill, either...again, thought I saw the concept of rolling it across muscles surfaces for fine body control and safe-reflexes, but...doing it...ah well, not my best day

I learned about the Miracle Fruit in this webcomic
(the more recent ones are straight up laugh-out-loud, the older ones are more hard-honest autobio)

I...well, actually kind of do want one. I like the in-dark-ending best. Rolly-polly!

a one, two, or three hot dog bouncer?

The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down, with a bunch of struggling actors trying to make their mark. But hey, kudos to them for living the dream, natch. Also I think that title is missing apostrophes? Anyway, it has its funny moments. Also, it's pretty shallow and insipid, though of course, the subject matter is...though! Though. If I'd realized this earlier I would have been mildly more interested, it basically is trying to be Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the LA 'scene,' down to the style of narration. So...kind of a clever premise, points for trying, nice job random indie people. Kind of.

Like that horse painting project, but more evil

shout out to Jayk and Zoombie...for the one person who would get that reference, who I'm sure does not read this blog, heh

The Laughing Corpse, by Laurell Hamilton. Ok, I am officially back into the Anita Blake novels. Normally I'd say it's the adeptly expanded setting that hooked me, but I really enjoy even more the confidence and moxie of the leading lady. Though it might be in the vampire chick lit section, I'd say it's quite not, this is more in the badass chick lit section. Yes. I think I also clicked more with this second novel than with the first as it was just less busy, this one only had zombies and zombie related activity (with a simultaneously creepy and badass ending); the first had vampires, lycanthropes, and zombies, which are all well and good, but would have been better served having established each of the categories first. Also, this book cemented my resolve to get some practice in with pistolry.

Got to give the dude kudos, painting accurately having been born without eyes

systema notes - el-dog-o edition

-first thing was jogging combined with breathing exercises; it didn't actually alter my ability to run at all to alter my breathing pattern consciously, I'm used to doing that on my own, but I did notice I have this huge difficulty really extending my exhale, I find it curious
-a battery of pushups to strenghthen the structure of our arms, and learn how to consistently keep the wrist aligned; staying in a pushup position while someone else does pushups on you works the most random muscles isometrically
-squats on other people lying down, front and back - pops the back nicely, interesting for the squatter's balance, and the bottom person's breathing-under-duress
-doing systema-situps while being hit, to work on moving under duress, and also learning how to pick where to hit to stop a given movement
-agility drills that looked like breakdancing combined with rolling, then rolling to evade and absorb someone trying to kick you while you're down - I think at this point my parents' dog randomly arrived to tackle me and then do figure-8s around the class, to everyone's amusement
-then most of the class was working on attempting to feel and achieve the "heavy hand" state so important to systema strikes; to be honest I didn't quite ever really feel it, that's definitely still a work in progress for me, I'm going to guess I need to relax my shoulders more
-I came closest to it when I was advised to let my hands just be dead-weight in a wingchun-esque drill; then, like aikido, it didn't even feel like I was doing anything when I was apparently (by his reaction) hitting immensely harder
-when it got too dark to see well for punch-for-punch, we switched to sitting shoulder to shoulder and trying to hit each other, like siblings on a roadtrip...quite fun, and a great skill to develop, to boot, really gets you rolling with punches to the head and thinking up unorthodox strikes
-apparently I've improved a lot in relaxing, but still have a lot of work to go...a little blow to my ego, but I'm excited to see what drills the teacher said he'd give me to work on it

his little boat looked like fun

Charlie Bartlett, with Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr, and Kat Dennings. And, yeah, she's pretty damn hot. At first I couldn't quite get into it...something about drugs being the easy quick fix for things and making people like Charlie and there being no better answer than popularity...like, I felt it was good and funny but couldn't agree with it. But then it picked up and deepened progressively more and more towards the end, so I guess I ended up liking it and agreeing with the sentiments expressed by then. The main characters' relationships are very cute, Downey is great as usual, Dennings is wonderfully curvy and charismatic. I'd almost say it's kind of a very oblique tangent to Igby Goes Down in some senses - just much more uplifting, purposeful, and pleasant.

Thirty-six Stratagems from Sun-tzu - chock full of interesting little anecdote-stories of sheer cleverness winning battles and wars.

"dibs on the mountain guide!" - see? funny, but also, treats her like an object

Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes, by Peter Watts. As usual with Watts, interesting and disturbing, real make-you-think sort of pieces (it's an anthology of short stories). But I wanted more, damn it! Each of the stories seems to me a perfect seed for a bigger story or novel (especially so in the first chapter of Starfish being included, but that just helps my assertion, I think). Weather that's 'alive' and aware in some sense and trying to exterminate humanity? Entropy taking on a faster pace, breaking down the very patterns of things? A scarier, shiver-inducing take on Jasmine from the show Angel (with same name, even)? Of course there was a miss or two maybe (the hate/fractals story) and a humorous one off (hippies + hungry orcas = hilarity) - all in all, worth a read, it's quick and snappy.

Journey to the Center of the Earth, with Brendan Frasier, Josh Hutchinson, and Anita Briem. Oh man. Dumb. But, great for kids. The 3D aspect actually didn't even seem that prevalent for a lot of it, more of an interesting complement to the cinematography than anything, but became more interesting with pop-out-of-screen scares and getting to watch little kids reach playfully for the illusion. Makes me wonder whether 3D might eventually become a standard complement to regular movies, just as an accenting thing, like an extension of HD or something. Anyway, I think this would have been better as a regular, epic kind of movie, I wanted more of the underground environment! I'll also note the female character who starts off (though in skin tight clothing) as more competent and effective than the male characters, though as the narrative becomes more dangerous, she becomes less competent and more reliant on the males, and her clothing becomes progressively less and less, then she gets wet, then is attacked by tentacled plants....heh, I didn't mind it, but at the same time, it seemed blatant undercutting of a female character.

slightly nsfw, actually kind of badass pattycake

the gelatin one is the most interesting and disturbing, to me, if you imagine that as a body

shawarmaball?

but, what about :P?

I totally want one just so I can name it Shawarma:
"The Rock Hyrax has been jokingly referred to as a "Shawarma Bear." This references its size and shape, which resemble shawarma."

but: is there a Ms Reef calendar for me?

that is so metal

dang, wish they'd thought of that earlier - Palestinians shooting cameras

systema notes, again: monsoon season

-wow, never occurred to me, but practicing martial arts outdoors with a cool stormy breeze, thunder nearby, and a fiery brilliant sunset is lighting up the palm trees like torches is...well, pretty effing awesome
-still getting used to doing pushups only on fists; my middle knuckles are a little bruised, which I think indicates I need to disperse my weight across more of my fist (which, I realize, is naturally more like a systema punch, than a 'standard' 2-knuckle punch)
-some built up strength in my lower arm structures and connective tissues will be nice, for both the above conditioning and for feeling more confident in that kind of, relaxed-half-fist the systema punches seem to use
-tricky: an extension of the extreme non-telegraphing movement (to the point of not telegraphing even on more subtle levels), to hit without rancor or intent to hurt...say, to punch someone hard enough to basically shut them down or knock them out, but without any negative or harmful intent beyond moving them the way you want...hard to explain, obviously
-interesting sensitivity drill of feeling another's breath/heartbeat, and extended from that, a very subtle point of directing another's attention by touch
-plastic man! man, if we'd had that back in the day....basically just letting another person manipulate you gently as if you were moldable plastic, to figure out how the human body-structure works, where it loses balance, how to make it lose balance, etc...that would have revolutionized all of our prior training in jujitsu and aikido if we had done for 10 or 20 minutes every class
-short work: working with continuously flowing strikes with an opponent at within-arms-length range, the goal being to get them to be shut down right at your feet. for some reason I kept standing my opponent back upright, heh, it was pretty funny, it was like I was helping him back up after knocking him down

Talking monkey, yeah, yeah. Came here from the future, ugly sucker, only says "ficus".

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, with Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan, who still doesn't do anything for me, really. I mistake her for that girl in Lost, I guess, that's about it. I'm glad I finally got to see this one, despite having forgotten it to the point of only the name being vaguely familiar when we glanced at the dvd. I actually had to consciously stop myself from trying to imitate the cadence of Downey and Kilmer's wit after the movie was over, but hey, it really was hilarious. It was odd to watch another movie with metafiction in it in such quick succession, but here it was less central and more an amusing sidenote. Only downside of the movie for me was the ending, which was ok, but kind of trailed off in a meandering, uncertain way, like they couldn't pick just one ending...though, the wit remained, I suppose, in the kind of self-conscious narration about it. So there's that.

eeep - hate to imagine that happening in the diner, we had enough trouble back when that fermented ketchup splattered the walls

but, how can they top DK for a sequel?

Funny Games, with Tim Roth and Naomi Watts. Interesting in theory...it's the kind of movie, I think, that's a lot better in being talked about, but, I'm not sure it's all that great to sit through to get to that point. That is, it's artsy, in long cuts that have purpose and nice cinematography and great acting. But it's also gratuitously violent....well, but not really, because it never actually directly shows any of the violence, all of it taking place off-frame...just the effects of it in the characters' emotions and psyches. The real highlight of the film, though, is the metafiction and breaking of the fourth wall, which I think had there been more of, it would have elevated the film and made it available to a wider audience - are the boys demons? Travelers from "reality"? Just insane in that extra-insightful way? Just plain insane? See, fun to talk about, not so fun to watch.

The Dark Knight, with the Batman Begins cast, plus the wonderful replacment of Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Well, it was long, but it never quite felt like it. Ok maybe in a few points where I was kind of going, "Where are they going to go now?" - but note that that's not "Where are they going with this?" Actually, wow, just noticed on imdb the rating's at 9.6...I wonder if that's unprecedented. I was a bit mollified by at least improvement on being able to see what Batman's doing when he's fighting, and twisty plot and characterization and shudder-inducing (and yet, laughter-inducing at inappropriate moments) Joker and acting. Nice.

Investigating Farscape, by Jes Battis. See my review on Amazon in the link when it goes up in a day or two, couldn't help but to respond to a doof.

waaaaiiiit a second....

Further thoughts on Step Up 2 the Streets:
-again, why in the hell was all the dancing illegal? Was that a really oblique attempt at political commentary about the danger of the Bush regime being so fascist or something?
-it says in the trivia that Hoffman actually participated in underground dancing to prepare for the movie...so it's real? That's pretty cool, I suppose, how do we find it? Or does it just mean he was dancing with mole people or....gasp! No, not the monsters from The Descent! Now there's a sequel. (seriously go watch the extra features on that latter movie, do it now.)

"be like...I don't know how to say...jello?"

notes from Systema! and stuff.
-it was hella muggy. Moist, if you will. Park + humid = itchy.
-there were more Russkies than Amurricans...one was supercute, though
-passing a knife from hand to hand while doing pushups (without tossing or rolling the knife) is incredibly challenging
-getting stabbed by a blunted metal knife still hurts a lot. I'm not dead or bleeding copiously, but yeesh.
-achieving that relaxed and sensitive state needed for being able to turn with a slashing blade, or sense one getting drawn in closequarters in failing twilight, requires being nigh meditative while fighting. This is going to take some practise.
-bigger "sticks" (ie, large clubs) are preferred to little kali sticks (which apparently don't hurt enough to be proper incentive to move). Metal pipes are popular in Russia.
-it's frustrating being with other students who rely on previous martial arts experience, rather than doing the non-technique drills, when I'm expending noticeable energy trying to unlearn bad habits (yes, you used to be a ninja. I used to be the opposite of a ninja. moving on. actually that person wasn't so bad it was more the tkd person.)
-the other frustrating thing is a general lack of instruction; yeah, I get that it's like creative writing, and you really can't tell someone how to improvise, but the lack of instruction I mean...actually, it's not the teacher, when working with him, his instruction is great (if confusing in a koan-way), it's just working with others and the wild inconsistency in what they do at times (not in skill, just...hitting hard, hitting soft, trying to hit vs trying to show, moving feet vs not moving feet...)